The Interoceanic Railway is a main line from the capital to Vera Cruz, passing through the town of Jalapa, amid a region famed for its beauty and unique tropical surroundings; and the line was constructed and operated by British interests. It embodies 736 miles of line. Its original concession was designed for powers to run to Acapulco, on the Pacific coast; hence the name of the railway; but it does not nearly reach the coast, although it descends into and serves the fertile and picturesque State of Morelos, connecting at Puente de Ixtla with the Mexican Central Railway. From that point a branch line runs to Puebla, the second or third important city of importance in Mexico; passing near the famous town of Cholula, of Aztec and Toltec remembrance. The Interoceanic is now merged into the new consolidation arrangement.

THE SEAPORT OF VERA CRUZ.

The International Railway runs also from the United States border, at Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, or Eagle Pass, across the great plateau to the city of Durango, as before mentioned, passing through important agricultural, manufacturing and coal-bearing regions.

The Hidalgo and North-Eastern is a narrow-gauge railway, 152 miles long, from the City of Mexico into the State of Hidalgo, and forms a part of the Mexican national system.

In the consolidation or fusion of the foregoing lines, that is to say, the Mexican Central, National, International, and Interoceanic, the Government has a dominating interest of 85 per cent. of the capital stock, and the control of this great system and company, now termed the "National Railways of Mexico," with an authorised capital of 615 million pesos, or £61,500,000, will be mainly a State affair; and any profits accruing from the enterprise after payment of interest on bonds and dividends on preferred stock, will go to the Mexican nation.

The Tehuantepec Railway is a very important line, in that it forms a short transcontinental route across North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans; and it may be expected to compete with the Panama Canal, in the carriage of passengers and freight. The distance from ocean to ocean in an air line is only 125 miles, and the line itself is only 192 miles long. This interesting route crosses the divortia aquarum, or water parting, of the continent at an elevation of only 730 feet above sea-level, at the Chivela Pass. The isthmus of Tehuantepec has been considered of geographical interest ever since the expeditions of Cortes discovered it. Projects both for a canal and a ship-railway have at different times during last century been brought forward to traverse it. The existing railway line was built in 1894, but its construction was faulty, and, moreover, the terminal ports, Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf side, and Salina Cruz on the Pacific side, were inadequate. In 1899 an English firm was called in by the Mexican Government; contracts entered into for the re-construction of the line, and the making of its terminal ports, all of which has been carried to completion; a work of endurancy, solidity, and utility being the result, which reflects credit on British methods generally and upon the contracting engineers in particular. This is the same firm[45] which carried out the great harbour works of Vera Cruz, and the drainage of the Valley of Mexico, and it has earned an enviable reputation in Mexico. The Tehuantepec Railway is 1,200 miles north of the Panama Coast, and may be expected to take a good deal of the United States and international transoceanic traffic, as it is nearest to the "axial line" of the world's commerce of any American isthmusian route. The railway is owned by the Mexican Government, but is worked by the British contractors in conjunction therewith under a partnership agreement. At Salina Cruz, the Pacific terminus, a fine harbour has been constructed at considerable cost; and a dry dock capable of holding vessels 600 feet long. The whole forms one of the most important seaports on the American Pacific coast, and reflects credit on its British constructors and on Mexican financial enterprise.

45 See [p. 336].

NEW PORT OF SALINA CRUZ, ON THE PACIFIC: THE GREAT DRY DOCK.
(See also [p. 306].)