68 
and on the shores of the lagoons the plataiea ajaja of a beauti¬ 
ful rose colour. 
Among the reptiles are found the iguana, the flesh of 
which is considered by the natives delicate food. Unfortu¬ 
nately too there are also the most dangerous kind of serpents, 
such as the rattle snakes (crotalus horridus), the coral coloured, 
and many others. 
Lastly, of the natural products of the country those yielded 
by the Insects of the Isthmus ought not to be overlooked. 
The most remarkable of these are the honey and wax with 
which the bees fill the woods, and the enormous bags of raw 
silk suspended by small worms from the branches of trees 
which the women of Tehuantepec turn to no small account. 
AGRICULTURE. 
Appendix C. Table 2, exhibits the private landed property 
existing in the southern part of the Isthmus. 
The produce most in requisition with all the inhabitants of 
Isthmus, and in general of the whole Republic, is maize, of 
which they make the tortillas (small cakes), and which is their 
principal food. 
The Indians of Guichicovi are the most active cultivators of 
maize ; but the harvest, which in proportion to the quantity 
sown they reap in great abundance, is due much more to the 
fertility of the soil than to the intelligence or art of the 
cultivator. Tehuantepec and San Miguel are the only places 
in the Isthmus where the maize plantations are artificially 
watered. 
Some attention is also paid in this part of the Isthmus to 
the cultivation of the sugar-cane. There is a sugar factory 
in the neighbourhood of Chihuitan, belonging to Messrs. H. 
Gobert and Olivier Gourjon, the former a German and the 
latter a Frenchman. According to the note taken by Don 
Pedro de Garay, this establishment, founded but a few years 
ago, can yield 100,000 lbs. of sugar, representing there a value 
of £1800, and £800 more for the brandy distilled from the 
molasses. 
