14 
ENGINEERING REPORTS. 
division of the Isthmus. They occupy an angle in the coast, 
which at the Barrilla turns to the north, making nearly a right 
angle with the coast-line to the east, and gradually curving to 
the west for a distance of 20 or 30 miles, when it again assumes 
an east and west direction. The mountains referred to termi- 
nate a long range of hills extending to the west, and gradually 
decreasing in height till they subside to the level of the plain 
country bordering the San Juan River on the east ; the whole 
being known as the Tuxtla range. Between this mountain 
chain and the Jaltepec River, the only highland breaking the 
general uniformity of the surface of the country, is the Encan- 
tada Mountain, five miles to the west of the Coatzacoalcos, and 
thirty miles from the Gulf. This mountain has an elevation of 
about eight hundred feet above the surrounding plains, and its 
base extends nearly two miles in a direction W. 1ST. W. by E. S. E. 
Thirty-seven miles eastward of this range is Mt. Tecuanapa, 
surrounded by extensive plains, and having an elevation of 
1200 or 1500 feet above the level of the Gulf. The country 
bordering the Uspanapa River on the east, and distant ten or 
twelve miles to the north of Tecuanapa, is considerably broken 
and divided by elevated ridges or ranges of hills, with an ex- 
treme elevation of four or five hundred feet above the sea-level ; 
and about midway between the Coatzacoalcos and the Tonala 
rivers, at a distance of eight or ten miles from the Gulf, are 
the Cerros of St. Yincent and Acalapa, which, though styled 
" mountains," consist of but moderately elevated broken ranges 
of hills. 
With the few exceptions here referred to, the entire country 
embraced in the northern division (as seen from the highlands 
immediately south of the Jaltepec River) presents the appear- 
ance of a broad plain, entirely covered with dense forests. 
The second or middle division may be said to extend from 
the Jaltepec River on the north to within twenty or twenty-five 
miles of the Pacific coast, comprising a strip of country through 
the central portions of the Isthmus, of some forty miles in 
breadth on the west, and gradually widening out towards the 
east to sixty or seventy miles. This division presents a great 
diversity of feature. The immense chain of the Cordillera, which, 
