320 
COEIilLLEEA OF CEXTEAL AMEEICA. 
of central America extends on toward the intendancia ol 
1 o*. o'} ^ distance from the two oceans ; then from 
AS, to ^1 Jat. from Mistecato the mines of Zimapan, it 
approximates to the eastern coast. Nearly in the parallel of 
the city of Mepco, between Toluca, Xalapa, and Cordoba, it 
attiuns Its loaximum height; several colossal summits rising 
to 2400 and 27/0 toises. Farther north, the chain called 
Sierra Madre rims IS. 40® W. towards San Miguel el 
Near the latter town (lat. 
), where the richest silver mines of the known 
world are situated, it widens in an extraordinary decree 
and separates into three branches. The most eastern brdnch 
advances tow'ards Charcas and the Eeal de Catorce, and 
lowers progressively (turning to N.E.) in the ancient king- 
dom of Leon, in the province of Cohahuila and Texas That 
branch is prolonged from the Eio Colorado de Texas, crossino- 
the Arkansas near the confluence of the Mississippi and the 
Missouri (lat. 38° 51 ). ^ In those countries it bears tlie 
name ot the Mo^taius of Ozark,* and attains 300 toises ot 
heiglit. ^tjias been supposed that on the east of the Mis- 
.’'^'«c«nsin Hills, whieh stretch 
out to jS .N.E. m the direction of Lake Superior, may be a 
continuatiou of too mountains of Ozark. Their metallic 
wealth seems to denote that they are a prolongation of 
the eastern Cordillera of Mexico. The western branch 
or Cordillera occupies a part of the province of Guada- 
tajara, and stretches by Culiacaii, Aripe, and the auiifer- 
ous lands of the Pimeria Alta and La Souora, as far as the 
banks o the Eio Gila (lat. 33“— 34°), one of the most 
ancient dwellings of the Aztek nations. We shaU soon see 
that tins western Cham appears to be linked by the spurs 
that advance to the w^est, with the maritime Alps of Cali- 
fornia. binally, the central Cordillera of Anahuac, which is 
stones, destroyed, on the 11th September, 1511, the Ciudad Vieia or 
Almolonga (the ancient capital of the country, which must not be'^ con- 
.ounded with the ancient Guatimahi), is covered with snow, during several 
oTmt: -- - indicated h%;1 
^ Ozark IS at once the ancient name of Arkansas, and of the tribe of 
Quawpaw Indians, who inhabit the banks of that great river W 
cmminant point of the Mountains of Ozark is in latitude 3;i* •>;! 
tween the sources of the White and Osage rivers. * ' 
