256 
TOWNS, PKODUCTIVE INDUSTRY, ETC. 
detail that one may be readily pardoned for passing them over 
in silence. Huilotepec, from its peculiar situation, is, however, 
somewhat of an exception, and may in time become an import- 
ant point in the establishment of the proposed railroad. At 
present it is an insignificant village, located on the eastern shore 
of the Tehuantepec River, within four miles of the sea, at the 
base of a sharp angular cerro, called, in the language of the 
Zapotecos, the " Hill of Crystals," and which gives name to the 
settlement. It contains a few scattered houses and a popula- 
tion of two hundred and eighty, whose only animal stock con- 
sists of dogs, of which there are several hundred. 
Immediately north and in close proximity to Ventosa, is a 
broad rich plain, which offers incomparable advantages for the 
location of a city. Free from overflow, or the presence of mias- 
matic marshes, and with abundant sources of delightful water on 
either side, it is but reasonable to conclude that before many 
years, the dense forest which now studs the plain will give place 
to cheerful habitations, and that where now only is the abode 
of the bird and the insect, will be heard the hum and the bustle 
of life's business. 
