gauge railway, 228 miles long,
running from the city of Puebla to the city of Oaxaca, through the
fertile region of Tehuacan. It was built by a British firm[46] of
engineers, which later carried out an important part of the drainage
works of the Valley of Mexico. The company is British, and the
financial position of the enterprise, which had been one of difficulty
formerly, has, under re-construction and the growing prosperity of the
country, been enabled to double its earnings, and pay a dividend upon
its ordinary stock.

[Footnote 46: Read, Campbell & Co., London.]

The Vera Cruz and Pacific Railway runs from Cordoba, an important town
before mentioned, on the Mexican Railway to Vera Cruz, to Santa
Lucrecia, on the Tehuantepec Railway; and is of much importance, as it
links the general railway system of the Republic with the transisthmus
line. In addition to this, it has a branch line to Vera Cruz, and so
becomes a through route of travel from that port to the Pacific Ocean,
_via_ Tehuantepec. The road carried a Government subsidy and was
financed in the United States, but due to inefficient management and
the heavy work involved in construction, the company suspended payments
in 1903, and the Government, in view of the strategic importance of the
line, took the property off the hands of the company. The railway is
now operated under Government auspices as an individual concern. It is
standard gauge, its length being 201 miles for the Tehuantepec
connection, and 62 miles for the Vera Cruz branch.

The Vera Cruz (Mexico) Railways--not to be confounded with the Mexican
(Vera Cruz) Railway--is a narrow-gauge line 44 miles long, running from
the port of Vera Cruz along the coast to Alvarado--named after the
_Conquistador_--a port near the estuary of the Papaloapam river. This
navigable river, as elsewhere described, extends inland and gives
access to an important tropical region. A tributary of this river, the
San Juan, is navigable for small craft for a distance of 177 miles from
Alvarado, at San Juan Evangelista, whence a short railway line connects
with the Tehuantepec Railway, thus completing a through service of
travel. The railway company and its steamers form a British enterprise,
controlled by the constructors of the Tehuantepec Railway.

In the peninsula of Yucatan are the United Railways of Yucatan, giving
communication with the chief cities and ports of that region. The total
length of line embodied in the