471 



which extends from E.8.E. to W.N.W., from 

 one ocean to another. This line of summits, 

 of which several enter into the limit o! perpe- 

 tual snows, and which are the loftiest of the 

 Cordilleras from the peak of Tolinia (lat. 40° 

 46' nor.), is almost perpendicular to the great 

 axis of the chain of Guatimala and Anahuac, ad- 

 vancing to the 27th parallel, constantly N. 42° E, 

 It is, as I have observed above, a characteristic 

 feature of every knot, or widening of the Cor- 

 dilleras, that the grouping of the summits is 

 independent of the general direction of the 

 axis. The back of the mountains in New Spain 

 form very elevated plains, where carriages can 

 roll on a length of 400 leagues, from the ca- 

 pital to Santa-Fe and Taos, near the sources of 

 Rio del Norte. This immense table-land, in 

 19° and 24i° of latitude, remains constantly at 

 the height of 950 to 1200 toises, that is, at the 

 elevation of the passages of the Great Saint 

 Bernard and Splugen. We find on the back of 

 the Cordilleras of Anahuac, which lower pro- 

 gressively from the town of Mexico towards 

 Taos (northern limit of the Provincias internets), 



Vol. ii, p. 379), yields results alike certain in latitude as in 

 longitude, the volcano of Colima is on the north of the 

 parallel of Puerto de Navidad, in 19° 36' of latitude, and, 

 like the volcano of Tuxtla, if not beyond the zone, at least 

 beyond the mean parallel of the volcanic fire of Mexico, a 

 parallel which appears to fall between 18° 59', and 19° 12', 



