city has a water front of 7½ miles. It lies in north latitude 25° 32'. The harbor is 18 miles long, and from one to six miles in width. It consists of two great basins, which are connected by the straits of Joshua. The water is 21 feet deep on the bar at low tide. Topolobampo is a far better port than Mazatlan.
Leaving Gonzalez City, the railway will have a northerly course as far as Fuerte. It will then enter the "foot-hills" of the Sierra Madre, traverse the southeastern corner of the State of Sonora, and run northeasterly, near the rich mining districts of Urique and Batopilas, to the town of Bocogna (elevation, 7,300 feet), in Chihuahua. From this place the line will take an easterly direction to Nonoavas, and, through the valley of the Rio Conchos, to a point near Parral. Thence the road-bed will descend to Jimenez, on the Mexican Central Railway. Leaving this station, the track will be continued across the Bolson de Mapimi, and through the State of Coahuila, to Piedras Negras, on the Rio Grande.
From this point, connection can easily be made with lines for Gralveston, New Orleans, or the South Atlantic coast.
This road will traverse a region in which Americans have invested large amounts of capital. The projectors of the railway hope to obtain much of the overland traffic from New York to Australia and New Zealand, as the distance to Auckland is 530 miles shorter via Topolobampo Bay than via San Francisco, Cal. Hon. William Windom is the president of this new railroad company. It is said that the preliminary surveys are nearly completed, and that the work of grading will be commenced immediately.
