100 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
be several hundred feet, so that valleys of a considerable depth are 
cut into it, and these may come to be serious obstacles in the way of 
movement along the plain. As the dimensions vary in one way 
or another, the conditions and opportunities for human occupation 
vary with them. 
The eastern coast of Mexico in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz 
is bordered by a low coastal plain about fifty miles wide, back of 
which the mountains rise rather abruptly. The plain is called the 
“tierra caliente,” or hot country; it is sandy and relatively infertile. 
Its broad surface is very hat, but it is here and there incised by the 
streams that flow out from the mountains. The railroad from the 
coast to the interior has an easy grade to the former shore line at the 
base of the oldland, but then rapidly ascends the flank of the 
mountains. The coast has no good harbors. Large vessels cannot 
approach close to the land, but must anchor off shore and transfer 
their cargo to lighters, unless extensive artificial docks and wharves 
are constructed. The rough handling incident to this method of 
discharging cargo has caused much injury to imported goods, even 
to the point of inducing one of our consuls to urge that manufac¬ 
turers in the United States should on this account use great care 
in packing their wares exported to Mexico. 
In the Mexican war (1847), when the fortified port of Vera Cruz 
was captured, the Mexicans found no other place for resistance on 
the smooth coastal plain, and therefore fell back to the hilly border 
of the oldland. Here they entrenched themselves on a spur, called 
Cerro Gordo, between two ravines that had been deepened by the 
streams from the mountains after the region was uplifted and the 
plain revealed. Although well defended, the spur was successfully 
assaulted by the American army under General Scott in the most 
decisive battle of the war. 
The highlands of the Deccan in the peninsula of India are bor¬ 
dered on the east by a gently sloping plain, not more than fifty 
miles wide. It consists of bedded gravels, sands, and clays, containing 
marine or brackish-water shells. Large rivers, the Godavari and 
Ivistna, draining great areas of the interior highlands, have extended 
their courses across the plain and built projecting deltas at its front. 
The accessible descriptions of these coastal plains in Mexico and 
India are so brief that nothing is said about many significant 
features whose existence may be strongly suspected. No mention 
is made of sea cliffs and river falls along the old shore line; yet 
