The agricultural products are similar to those enumerated for the neighbouring maritime states--wheat, barley, maize, and textile plants are produced, as also sugar-cane, cotton, coffee. The great forests afford oak, pine, cedar, mahogany, ebony, and other timber, and excellent natural pasturage abounds for cattle-raising, which is an important industry. The rich valley of Oaxaca is a favoured region, with a mild and healthy climate. To enumerate all the plants and products of this exuberant, tropical region would be to fill pages with names, but it may be said that almost every variety of tropical and temperate zone fruit, flower, fibrous plant, cereal, vegetable, and timber abound--a _flora_ such as could not be surpassed anywhere. There are vast tracts of land in this state, of virgin country, consisting of pure alluvial soil, waiting population to cultivate it, and the whole forms an agricultural region of much promise. Railway construction of late years has made the state a trans-continental territory. The Tehuantepec railway, elsewhere described, has its western terminus at the port of Salina Cruz, having traversed the state, and from this important route midway across the Isthmus a line of railway runs to Oaxaca, the state capital, and so connects with the main system of the Republic. Some years ago a serious outbreak of yellow fever occurred upon the isthmus, but improving hygienic measures appear to have prevented a recurrence of this, and to have diminished the almost inevitable malaria. There are other short lines of railway in the state. [Illustration: MEXICO'S ARTIFICIAL HARBOURS OF THE PACIFIC COAST: THE NEW PORT WORKS OF SALINA CRUZ, TERMINUS OF THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY.] The city of Oaxaca is handsome and interesting, and enjoys a temperate climate due to its elevation of more than 5,000 feet above sea-level. It justly prides itself upon having produced some of Mexico's famous men, including Juarez and Porfirio Diaz. Chiapas is the southernmost of the Mexican states--the last upon the Pacific, its eastern boundary forming the frontier with the neighbouring Republic of Guatemala. Following out the general structure of Mexico's littoral, the Sierra Madre parallels the Pacific Ocean here, leaving a narrow coast strip, but with a lack of good ports and navigable rivers. On the northern side, however, the Atlantic watershed, the state is traversed by navigable streams which flow to the Gulf of Campeche, notably the affluents of the Grijalva and Usumacinta, traversing the neighbouring State of Tabasco.