of Guatemala, and embracing the coast below Yucatan to the Gulf of Dulce, is nearly ten degrees warmer. This coast, from Belize downward to Izabal and Santo Tomas, is hot and unhealthy. The same remark applies, in a less degree, to the northern and eastern coast of Honduras, from Omoa to Cape Gracias á Dios. A favorable circumstance here is the close approach of the mountains to the shore, and the prevalence, for a considerable portion of the year, of cool and bracing winds from the north. The State of San Salvador lies wholly on the Pacific. It is smaller than any of the others, but proportionally better populated. It is less elevated than either Guatemala or Honduras, and its general temperature is probably higher. The heat, however, is never oppressive, except at a few points near the coast, as for instance Sonsonate, San Miguel, and La Union, all of which owe their excessively high temperature to local circumstances. Honduras, as its name implies (being the plural of "hondura," depth), has a very diversified surface, and a consequent diversity of temperature. The climate is generally delightful, the average temperature at Tegucigalpa, Comayagua, Juticalpa, and Gracias, the principal towns, being about 74°. The Department of Segovia, in Nicaragua, bordering on Honduras, has a like surface and temperature. The principal part of Nicaragua, however, is widely different in all respects, and has a topography and climate peculiarly its own. The average temperature of the great basin of the lakes is about 79° or 80°: a result due not to its elevation, but to other favorable and modifying causes, which I have fully pointed out in my work on that country. The population of Costa Rica is concentrated on the western or Pacific slope of the volcano of Cartago, and, as a consequence, almost any degree of temperature may be obtained, according to the elevation, from the intense heat of the port of Punta Arenas to the constant spring of San José, or to the autumnal temperature of the belt around the ancient capital of Cartago. The eastern slopes of Costa Rica may be said to be uninhabited, and the coast from Chiriqui Lagoon northward is low and unhealthy. Indeed, the entire Atlantic coast of Central America, from Truxillo southward, embracing the whole of what is called the Mosquito shore, is subject to the same remark. Hence this coast has scarcely any inhabitants, except a few squalid Indians, while the coast of the Pacific is lined with towns, and occupied by a very considerable population. What are called the "seasons" under the tropics, namely, the wet and dry, are much influenced in their commencement and duration by local causes, so that what is literally true of one place can only be partially so of another. The widest differences are, of course, between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the continent. The whole of Central America comes within the zone of the northeast trade winds, which, sweeping across the Atlantic, reach the continent almost saturated with vapor. The portion of moisture of which they are deprived by the Caribbean Islands is probably again nearly, if not quite, made in their passage up over the sea of the same name. These winds are intercepted by the high mountain centres of Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica, and the vapor precipitated from them flows down to the Atlantic, through a mul titude of streams and rivers. But the mountains of Central America are not all high enough to entirely intercept the trade winds. They are, moreover, broken through by transverse valleys, like that of the Nic araguan Lakes, and that of Comayagua in Honduras. As a consequence, the trades, for a greater part of the year, blow entirely across the continent, reaching the Pacific slope deprived of their moisture, and cooled by a passage over the elevated region of the interior. Hence result the greater salubrity of that declivity, the comparative coolness and dryness of its climate, and its consequent greater population. For about four months of the year, from May to October, the trades being intermittent, the Pacific declivity is subject to winds from the west and southwest, which precipitate their waters against the western slopes of the mountains, and constitute the rainy season. As these Pacific winds are seldom more than exaggerated sea-breezes, and are rarely of more than a few hours' continuance, the rains which follow from them are brief, occurring generally in the afternoon and night. It is rare to witness an entire day of rain, although there are occasionally meteoric combinations which produce what the Spaniards call Temporales, or rains of several days' continuance. During a residence of three rainy seasons in Central America, I witnessed but one Temporal. Speaking generally, the dry season, or summer, may be said to commence, on the coasts, in December, and terminate in June; the remaining months constituting the rainy season, or winter. But the dry season has really a duration of but about three months-February, March, and April; the rainy season an equal number-July, August, and September. Between these periods the rains are intermittent, alternating with days and sometimes weeks of dry weather. On both coasts heavy dews fall during the night, so that vegetation is always profuse and beautiful. But on the more elevated central plateaus, where the alti tude exceeds 3000 feet, the dews are slight, and the nights are as dry as the days. As a consequence, some of these districts at certain periods seem arid and burned, and never enjoy that luxuriance of vegetation which constitutes equally the beauty and danger of the seaboards. Although the rains, especially those which, at the epochs of change in the seasons, fall in showers, are much heavier than those which prevail in the United States and in Europe, so that in a few minutes the earth is covered with water, yet they do not generally last more than half an hour. They cease as suddenly as they begin; the sky as suddenly recovers its serenity, the sun comes out unclouded, dispersing the humidity, and in a brief space the earth becomes, to all appearance, as dry as if no rain had fallen. What I have said applies strictly to the respective Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The central plateaus, or high table-lands of the interior, have a climate of their own, subject neither to heavy rains nor excessive droughts. The winds which reach them, as well from the west as the east, are first deprived of the greater part of their moisture, but both bring with them more or less rain. From the circumstance that they lie nearest the Pacific, these plateaus partake most of the climate of that coast, with which their seasons also measurably coincide. The plain of Comayagua, situated in the very centre of Honduras, and equidistant from the two great seas, may be taken as an illustration. More or less rain falls there during every month in the year; but, during the prevalence of the dry season on the Pacific, it is only in the form of showers of brief duration, while during the wet season the rains are comparatively long and heavy. Continuous rains, or Temporales, are unknown. There is another circumstance, not often considered, which contributes to make the heat of the day in this intertropical region more endurable than that of certain periods of the year in more elevated latitudes, and that circumstance is the difference in the length of the days. In the latitude of New York, the longest days of the year are 15 hours 16 min.; the shortest nights are 8 hours 44 min. In the latitude of Honduras, the longest days of the year are 12 hours 40 min.; the shortest nights 11 hours 20 min. The sun, then, during the solstice of summer, is above the horizon of New York 2 hours 36 minutes longer than in Honduras; and it is precisely during this period that the sun is nearest our zenith, while in Honduras, during the longest days, the sun is past the zenith. It is clear that this additional exposure to the rays of the sun during its period of greatest force must have a very sensible effect on the temperature, and render the heat greater and less supportable than it would be were its action limited to a fewer number of hours. These general remarks will be found supported by the following data, which comprise about all the information that I have been able to collect on this subject from personal observations or from authentic sources: Costa Rica. "The climate of Costa Rica is very humid, the rain falling for six months of the year. It is cool and healthy on the Pacific declivity, excepting the immediate coast; hot, wet, and unhealthy on the Atlantic; cold and salubrious on the table-lands of the interior, where the thermometer ranges from 65° to 75° of Fahr. in the course of the year. It must be observed that the rainy season on the Pacific and in the interior is from April to November; but upon the Atlantic |