At the same time that these two extensions were being undertaken by old and well-established railways, a new company-the Kansas City, Mexico && Orient-was engaged in constructing a line almost due south-west from Kansas City, Mo., to the lower part of the gulf of California in Mexico; while an additional independent line was under construction from Denver in a north-westerly direction towards the Pacific coast.
The four fringing seas of eastern Asia, those of Bering, Okhotsk, Japan and East China, are arranged parallel to the main lines of dislocation in the neighbouring land-masses, and so are the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of California.
On the Pacific coast there are a number of islands off the rocky shores of Lower California and in the Gulf of California - most of them barren and uninhabitable like the adjacent coast.
The rainfall is heavy in the south, except Yucatan, but diminishes gradually toward the north, until on the Pacific and Gulf of California coasts it almost disappears.
Since the closing years of the last century pearl fishing in the Gulf of California has been carried on with modern appliances and better results by an English company under a concession from the government.
