Identifier: isthmusoftehuant00will (find matches)
Title: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec : being the results of a survey for a railroad to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, made by the scientific commission under the direction of Major J.G. Barnard ... : with a résumé of the geology, climate, local geography, productive industry, fauna and flora, of that region : illustrated with numerous maps and engravings
Year: 1852 (1850s)
Authors: Williams, John Jay, 1818-1904 Tehuantepec Railroad Company United States Naval Observatory, former owner. DSI
Subjects: Railroads
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton & Company ...
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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y ar-rested by the Pio Almoloya. This range forms the southwesternlimit of what are termed the plains of Xochiapa. From the summit of Nisi Conejo the line continues in a south-easterly direction, descending on a grade of sixty feet to themile, to the level of the plains of Chivela;. thence it continues itscourse to the Hacienda of that name at the entrance of ChivelaPass. The entrance from these plains to the Pass of Masahua is threemiles distant, from a point 2000 feet north of the Hacienda,and bears S. 74° E. From this initial point the line ascends thevalley of a stream winding among the bare hills, on a generaldirection a little east of south, nearly one mile and three-quartersto the summit, which is 125 feet above the plains of Chivela; 115feet above the bench mark at the Hacienda of that name, and843 feet above the Pacific Ocean. Here it is proposed to makea thorough cut of about 2500 feet, with an average depth of40 feet, the grade line at the deepest point being 63 feet below
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ENGINEERING EEPOBTS. 27 the surface. This would reduce the summit at grade to only,60 feet above the plains of Chivela, and 793 feet above thePacific. From the surface indications, there is reason to believe that thematerial in this cut will be found almost entirely composed oftalcose and clay slates—rocks which generally disintegrate onexposure to the atmosphere, and are very easily blasted in theirmore solid state. It is very probable that from five to twentyfeet of the surface can be readily removed with the pick andshovel—the remainder by blasting. Descending from the summit on a sixty-feet grade, the gen-eral course of the line is nearly south, and continues on theright of the valley of the Summit Arroyo, till it reaches DantaPass, where the valley opens between the ends of two highmountains into that of the Torrente de Masahua Themountain on the right is called Masahuita / that on the left, Cerro de Espinosa From the summit to Masahuita, we encounter a succession ofridges or

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