The daily gazette., 1880-03-10
Crossing the cord,lisrss.
A TALK WITH THE ENGINEER OF THE
PROPOSED rEHUANTEPEo RAILROAD.

A TALK WITH THE bN0Ankhh Of Inn
PROPOSED TEHUANTEPEc RAILROAD.
William ]. MacAlpine, the engineer,
who went on the 9th Of December
last to survey the route for the pro-
posed Tehuantepec Railroad, which
is to stretch $50 miles across Mexico
and connect the Atlantic with the
Pacific, has just returned to report his
observations to the officers of the Te-
huantepec Interocean Railroad Com
pany of Mexico, which has its Office
In New York. Mr.. MacAlpine has
given an interesting account of his
trip to o reporter. He said that he
had not found the engineering difficult
ties of the first sixty miles of the
eastern end of the road any greater
than would be met in covering the
same length of level ground with a
road bed in the United States.
"For distance Of forty miles the road
passes over what Is known as the
ssswampy region This lies low, and be-
yond the trouble of cutting through the
very dense vegetation the work Is of q
very simple character, merely filling In
for a road-bed with good ballast to be cut
from the sand hills and dumped on the
line. When this part Of the line Is pass
ed we come into as fine country as any
in the world. 1t is unexcelled for the
raising of tobacco, coffee. and corn. Now
1t Is cultivated by the Indians in their
lude way, but IL yields very heavy crops.
The company by their grant from the
Mexican Government get alternate sec
tions of land, nine miles square. 1t is
important to get good land, and l can
say that for cultivator to 60 down, see
those healthfal uplands and grow coffee
and tobacco, would be sure paying
speculation.
The climat, Is warm. but not as warm
as In New York at times. The ther
mometer never rises into the nineties.
The highest point OF this long stretch Of
l.vel country is not over $50 feet above
the sea level. did not go beyond the
foot of the mountains, as we shall begin
at this end and work here for a time, so
did not make any examination OF the
mountains, but they are pretty well
known through the work Of other sur
veyors. The highest point TO be reached
Is $50 feet above the sea level. We shall
have one grade of 1l5 feet to the mile
for dist ance of eight miles. This is the
sharpest grade, and generally the worst
grades are so feet TO the mile, and this
only emong the mountains. Out on u e
Pacific side the grade gets down to the
ordinary level, and like on the Atlantic
side there is q clear stretch for many
miles, where only grading will be neces-
sary, and that Is the simplest sort OF
work.
We had an idea when we started from
here that we would have to go to
Jamaica or Cuba to get negroes TO work
who could endure the climate, but we
found that the Indians could do all that
was necessary, and they make excellent
woI kmen for ordinary digging, and are
especially expert in cutting passage
through the heavy vegetation win Their
machetas. Along through the hrst
twenty miles we shall use the coast In
dians. who are accustomed to the low
lands. They have come with their wives
and children, which means that they
have come to stay as long as they can.
They come from all along the coast In
their canoes, but there are not many OF
of them, SO we pay them 81 day. Aiter
we have pushed on bit we can get
other Indians who will not come INTO the
low districts to work, and we shall pay
but IS cents a day. Along the plains l
have spoken Of villages of these lndia'
are frequently met with, containing from
5000 to 5000 inhabitants. There we
can hire laLorers at 80 cents day In
any number, as they can leave their wo-
men to do the work in the field. think
there are now about 25O men at work,
and we shall have as many more at work
very soon. Skilled laborers or mechanics
will be taken from the United States Tor
track laying, bridge-building, and for
some of the work in the mountains. The
indians on the Pacific side Of the hills
are very anxious for us to come over
there, as they wish to get TO work."