Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/781

 COATZACOALCO COBALT 765 show the inaccuracies of all our charts pre- vious to the investigations of the coast survey. The means that have been applied to correct these great evils have riot been incommensu- rate with the end. It may be said that advan- tage in economy is not the least of the practi- cal results of the scientific methods of the sur- vey. Compared with foreign surveys, it is not only more accurate in detail, but its results have been produced with a rapidity and econ- omy altogether unprecedented. The English survey was commenced in 1791, and is still un- finished, the land work being as yet uncon- nected with the hydrography. The cost of that survey is more than four times the cost of ours. During the ten years previous to 1848, Great Britain expended for hydrography alone $7,500,000. The total cost of the United States coast survey up to that time was only $800,000, including land work and hydrog- raphy. At the present time, while the sur- vey has extended its operations across the whole continent, and even included the distant domain of Alaska, its expenditures, including the cost of building a number of new vessels, have been comparatively small. With this small expense the survey has been extended so as to embrace the whole of our Atlantic, Pa- cific, and gulf coasts. During the year 1872 12 triangulation parties, 2 astronomical parties, 12 hydrographical parties, and 14 topographi- cal parties were in the field on the Atlantic and gulf coasts, and 13 parties on the Pacific, besides the computers, draughtsmen, engra- vers, &c., employed in the office. Up to the present tune (1873) 1,282 original topographi- cal and 1,144 hydrographical sheets have been surveyed, and charts of 240 harbors on the At- lantic and gulf coasts, and of 100 harbors on the Pacific, have been published, besides 209 coast and sailing charts, great numbers of cop- ies of which have been issued. An elaborate and careful " Coast Pilot " of the Atlantic coast is in process of preparation, and one has already been completed and published for Alaska and the Pacific coast. COATZACOALCO, or Goatzaeoaleos, a river of Mexico, rising in the unexplored part of the Sierra Madre, and flowing N. across the isth- mus of Tehuantepec into the bay of Coatza- coalco, in the gulf of Mexico, in lat. 18 8' 30" N., Ion. 94 17' W. It is the most important of the streams which water the N. slope of the isthmus, on account both of its numerous tributaries and its extensive basin, and of its position as a part of a projected channel of in- teroceanic communication. A commission sent out by the United States in 1850 ascended by small boats to the village of Santa Maria Chi- malapa, 4-J m. below its junction with the Chimalapilla ; and in the winter of 1870-'71 it was again explored by a party under command of Capt. R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. K, who de- monstrated the practicability of a canal by this route. About 45 m. below Santa Maria it re- ceives the Malatengo on the west, and on the same side, 22 m. further down, it is joined by the Sarabia. The Jumuapa enters 17m. below, and next to it the Jaltepec, which is the prin- cipal tributary on the west, being navigable by canoes 50 m. at all seasons. The Chalchijapa joins on the east, 22-J- m. below the Jumuapa. Thence to the point of Horqueta, 40 m. fur- ther, the affluents are all small. After the junction of the Sarabia the hills become incon- siderable, and below the mouth of the Jaltepec the banks of the river are in few places more than 10 or 15 ft. high, and are often over- flowed. The current is scarcely perceptible, and during the dry season shoals are met with having only 18 inches of water over them. At the Horqueta, 102 m. below the Malatengo, the river branches, and after forming the island of Tacamichapa, reunites. The W. branch is called the Mistan, the E. the Apotzongo. The former, which is the longer, is 34 m. long and has an average depth of 13 ft. The Coa- huapa joins the river on the east, 10 m. below the junction of the branches; 4 m. below its mouth, on the W. bank, is the village of Mina- titlan ; and 4 m. below this the river Us- panapan, the most considerable of the many tributaries of the Coatzacoalco, joins it on the east. From the lower point of the island of Tacamichapa to the mouth of the Coahuapa the depth is 26 ft., and thence to the bar from 33 to 40 ft. The breadth between the same points is from 130 to 700 yards. It is thus navigable for about 35 m. for the largest ships. At the mouth of the river, which lies 115 m. W. of the mouth of the Tabasco, and 143 m. in a direct line from the harbor of Ven- tosa, on the Pacific coast of the isthmus, there is a bar, the soundings over which made by or- der of Cortes in 1520 gave the same results as those obtained in 1850 and in 1871. It ap- pears to be of limestone rock, with a light covering of coarse sand, and has two passes, one 350 ft. wide and 13 ft. deep, and the other 100 ft. wide and between 11 and 12 ft. deep. The breadth of the stream at its mouth is 1,500 ft. Just within the bar is the little vil- lage of Coatzacoalco, which has grown up since 1855, and is now frequented by vessels engaged in the mahogany trade. COBALT, one of the elementary metals. The word cobalt was formerly used to designate & whole group of worthless metals. The super- stitious miners imagined that the genii of the mountains resisted all attempts to penetrate their mysteries, and threw all sorts of false ores and unripe metal in the way of the workmen, in order to discourage them from their under- taking. These mountain gnomes or sprites were called kobolds, and the miners gave theif name to the worthless ore. The bright shi- ning mineral that vexed the workmen so much was at one time supposed to contain bismuth, and was very little used. These are the first recorded notions, but there is little doubt that cobalt ores were used for coloring glass some thousands of years before in Nineveh, Thebes,