116 
GENERAL SUMMARY. 
desirable extent. Lastly, the results of Mr. Temple's survey 
show that light-draught steamers of two feet may ascend at all 
seasons to beyond the confluence of the Jaltepec — a distance of 
ninety-five miles by the windings of the river from Mina- 
titlan. 
Not less gratifying are the results of the survey of the Uspa- 
napa, from which it is evident that vessels drawing eleven feet 
may ascend it for twenty-six miles from its junction with the 
Coatzacoalcos, and that those requiring five feet will experience 
no obstacle as far up as the Piaya del Tigre, forty-five miles 
from the mouth of the river. 
Passing to the southern side of the Isthmus, we come to a 
consideration of Yentosa, which can now be used in its present 
condition in the same manner as Panama, by employing light- 
ers, but under circumstances far more advantageous, from the 
fact that vessels of the largest class may lie within a few hun- 
dred feet of the shore. Whereas at Panama the approach to 
the beach is extremely shallow, and vessels seldom^ lie nearer 
than three miles of the town. 
Already a number of plans for the permanent improvement 
of Yentosa hftve been suggested. Mr. Temple recommends a 
breakwater, extending from the extreme outer point of the Cerro 
Morro, in a direction about east 2000 feet, and with an angle at 
the centre of 150°. Mr. Trastour, on the other hand, proposes 
the construction of a timber breakwater, or port, about one and 
a half miles to the east of Cerro Morro, on the opposite side of 
the mouth of the river. A third plan is to carry a breakwater 
out from near the middle or inner point of Cerro Morro, in an 
easterly direction, on a curved line — at first about 1500 feet — so 
as not only to serve as a protection to the entrance of an inner 
basin to be formed by dredging out the Laguna del Morro and 
the western mouth of the Tehuantepec River, but to form like- 
wise an outer harbor. An important preliminary step to this 
plan would be to throw a dam across the Tehuantepec River, 
and confine it exclusively to its eastern channel. This would 
prevent the accumulation of deposit and sedimentary matter 
now fast filling up the indenture in the coast. An approxi- 
mate estimate of this method gives, in round numbers, $490,000 
