Though there are large savannahs on the high plains of Guatemala, there are also magnificent primeval forests, as the name of the country implies, Guatemala signifying, in the Mexican language, a place covered with trees. The banks of the Rio de la Papian, or Usumasinta, which rises in the alpine lake of Lacandon, and flows over the table-land to the Gulf of Mexico, are beautiful beyond description. The coasts of Central America are generally narrow, and in some places the mountains and high lands come close to the water’s edge. The sugar-cane is indigenous, and on the low lands of the eastern coast all the ordinary produce of the West Indian islands is raised, besides much that is peculiar to the country. As the climate is cool on the high lands, the vegetation of the temperate zone is there in perfection. On the low lands, as in other countries where heat and moisture are in excess, and where nature is for the most part undisturbed, vegetation is vigorous to rankness: forests of gigantic timber seek the foul air above an impenetrable undergrowth, and the mouths of the rivers are dense masses of jungle with mangroves and reeds 100 feet high, yet delightful savannahs vary the scene, and wooded mountains dip into the water. Nearly all the coast of the Pacific is skirted by an alluvial plain, of small width, and generally very different in character from that on the Atlantic side. In a line along the western side of the table-land and the mountains there is a continued succession of volcanos, at various distances from the shore, and at various heights, on the declivity of the table-land. It seems as if a great crack or fissure had been produced in the earth’s surface, along the junction of the mountains and the shore, through which the internal fire had found a vent. There are more than 20 active volcanoes in succession between the 10th and 20th parallels of north latitude; some higher than the mountains of the central ridge, and several subject to violent eruptions. Altogether, there are 39 in Central America, 17 of which are in Guatemala—a greater number than in any other country, Java excepted.