50 
cended the river still higher than that point on their rafts, 
during six days, which may he reckoned about 56 miles, until 
they came to the junction of two small streams forming the 
river, and the courses of which were too precipitous to allow 
of being followed in their rafts. 
On the same side, and at a short distance below the Chima- 
lapilla, is the confluence of the river del Pinal, so called be¬ 
cause it flows through mountains whereon the pine-timber 
was cut by the Spanish government to be sent to the Havannah 
for the masting of large ships, and for this reason this part of 
the Coatzacoalcos is still called the river del Corte (of the 
cutting). 
As far as the confluence with the river del Milagro, which 
enters on the left bank at 1J miles to the W. N. W. of Santa 
Maria, the Coatzacoalcos takes a precipitous course through a 
deep ravine, with a descent of 132 feet in the space of 12 miles. 
The mountains which border the channel are at first very high 
and precipitous, but gradually lowering and softening in their 
character as the mouth of the Milagro is approached, they then 
appear only as hills of moderate elevation, and the river has 
changed from being a rapid torrent, in which the rafts could 
with difficulty float, into a quiet stream, with only occasional 
rapids of small extent. The rocks on the banks of the river 
are of sand-stone, calcareous spar, and slate, although this last 
but rarely occurs. The limestone is excavated by the river, 
w T hich thus appears to pass under the ruins of a bridge. 
In the few small patches of level ground, on the borders of 
the river, the Indians of Santa Maria plant maize, tobacco, 
and cocoa ; some of these tracts of land being only accessible 
in rafts, and others only by very craggy pathways. 
The volume of water now filling the river is considerable, 
for as Sr. Moro descended, he found it to be about 57 cubic yards 
per second, and the Indians assured him that it was rarely less. 
Beyond the confluence of the Milagro, the river, hitherto 
running from east to west, follows a general direction towards 
the S. W. as far as the mouth of the Escolapa, and after that 
to the N. W. as far as that of the Malatensro. Both these 
o 
rivers flow into the Coatzacoalcos by its left bank ; and the 
