Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/335

Rh . The adjacent country may be concisely described as follows:

The depth of water at low tide is thirteen feet on the bar at the mouth of the Goatzacoalcos River, which is navigable for a distance of 30 miles. Placer gold-deposits are said to exist in the interior of the isthmus, although the country has not yet been geologically explored. Large beds of asphalt also occur. The vegetable productions of this region are indigo, tobacco, sugar-cane, cocoa, cotton, coffee, Indian corn, vanilla, sarsaparilla, ginger, and India-rubber.

The terminus of the road will be at Salina Cruz, three miles west of La Ventosa, on the Pacific coast, which is considered a safe harbor. It is said that work on the western section of this railway has begun. Winter is the best season for visiting the isthmus, as the summers are very hot and a great variety of insects abound. Some of them are poisonous, and the tourist should exercise extreme caution to avoid being bitten while traveling through the jungle or in camping out.

Humboldt, in his Political Essay on New Spain, has referred to the possibility of making the Isthmus of Tehuantepec an avenue of travel at some future day. He gives the width of the isthmus at 118 miles. The connections of the Tehuantepec Railroad with the Mexican Southern Railroad are mentioned in Section VII.

Captain J. B. Eads has recently visited England, to procure capital to build the Tehuantepec Ship-Railway.

The advantages to commerce of a means of communication across the isthmus (either by land or water) can hardly be overestimated. This route lies between latitude 16° and 18°, and, unlike the malarious climate of Panama, the region is comparatively healthy all the year round. While the commerce between Europe and the Pacific Ocean will be carried on via the Isthmus of Panama for many years, the greater part of the trade between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States must needs be conducted across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec as soon as the railway is finished.

It is hardly necessary to say that the latter route will soon become a