OCR Text |
Show 198 DR. H. GADOW ON MEXICAN [June 6, liills, deep gorges with sandy river-beds and patches of xerophile vegetation, especially cactus. San Bartolo, 2800'; San Carlos, 2460', in more open country. Totolapan, 2800', in broad, sandy river-vaHey. Thence steep ascent on to the plateau, the edge of which is 5300 . Looking back, southwards, over the many ridges of mountains and hills, the Tierra Caliente appears to be densely covered with wood, while towards the north stretches the flat, almost treeless Southern Plateau, here and there with outcropping low ridges which are barren when of volcanic, wooded when of Palaeozoic formation. San Dionisioand Tlacolula, 5160' ; Oaxaca, 5060'. The Palaeozoic terrain stretches from Oaxaca westwards. There is the forest-clad Cerro de San Felipe, 9000 feet high, with semialpine meadows on its slopes. From Cuernavaca southwards to the coast. Cuernavaca, 5000'. Fertile valleys of volcanic and limestone terrain, with little streams. Shut off from the Yalley of Mexico by the high, volcanic, densely wooded Sierra de Ajusco, &c., averaging 10,000 feet. Puente de Ixtla to Tetecala. Pleasant, fertile, varied open country; limestone terrain, in which are the huge Caves of Cacahuimilpa. Iguala, 2400', in a wide plain, surrounded by limestone hills, with scanty vegetation. Rio Balsas Station, 1500' ; in the valley of the Balsas or Mescala River. Very mountainous ; tropical vegetation. High and low forest, interspersed with much brushwood. The river, during the rainy season, brings down floods of yellow or brown water with rather little sand, but much comminuted vegetable matter. The bed is rocky, limestone, the banks mostly steep, but there are many sandy shelves above the high-water mark. Mescala, 1700'. The Balsas basin is bordered on the southern side by a long and high range of mountains, parallel with the Pacific coast, attaining heights of 10,000 feet, densely wooded, intersected by very deep, steep, and long gorges, and the river-beds are the only available loads; here and there these river-beds broaden out into meadows. Mesquititlan, 2800'. Narrow, luxuriant gorges. Zumpango, 3400'. Open, sandy, meadows. Chilpancingo, 4100'. In a windswept, shallow depression of Cretaceous terrain, surrounded by sparsely wooded hills, and meadows on the top of the ridge. To the west, in the mountains the hamlet of Omilteme, 7100', luxurious forests ; at first oak, dwarf palms and pines; then oak, pine, and arbutus; then oak and pine; and lastly pines up to the highest summits, forming dense high forests, with the most luxurious underwood in the gorges, especially within the cloudbelt. Mazatlan, 4200'. Meadows and fields. |