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400 twenty miles—to Puebla—being completed at this end of the route, and fifty from Vera Cruz westward, leaving a gap of only about one hundred and twenty miles. The Tehuantepec Inter-Oceanic Railroad may be built, the Tuxpan and Manzanillo or San Blas Railroad grant will soon pass Congress, and other roads are projected. The Valley of Mexico is to be drained and rendered healthy by improvements already well advanced, and soon to be completed.

Among the many improvements going on, I may mention as particularly promising, the projected line of communication between the City of Mexico and the port of Tampico.

Under the special decree of the 25th of May, 1868, the Mexican Congress made an appropriation of three thousand dollars per month, to open a wagon-road between Ometuzco and the river Panuco. The object is to connect the City of Mexico and the port of Tampico by the most direct route, and at the same time, give protection to one of the richest and most interesting portions of the Sierra and Huasteca country. A Commission of Engineers, headed by John C. C. Hill, was appointed by the Government of Mexico on the 10th of June, 1868, to explore the country, in order to select the best route, with the understanding that the road must, under any circumstances, touch at Zacualtipan and Huejutla, and terminate at the most suitable point on the Panuco river, where navigation is at all seasons of the year practicable, by small steamboats down to the Gulf. The point selected, is Tanjuco, a small Indian town, conveniently situated on the east bank of the Panuco river, about fifty miles above Tampico.