INTRODUCTION, XI 
(5200 feet), Miravalles, Poas (8845 feet), Irazu (11,500 feet), and Turrialba (10,330 
feet) are the highest summits. Southern Costa Rica is marked by the range called 
the Montafia Dota, 7000 to 9000 feet, running east and west, from which two branches 
extend, one close to the Pacific, the other stretching across the centre of the country, 
culminating in its highest points the Cerro Chiripo and Pico Blanco (11,700 feet 
above the sea). Between these northern and southern masses is the tableland of 
Cartago, which has an elevation of from 3000 to 4000 feet and forms the most 
cultivated part of the country. In contrast to the south-western, which is characterized 
by Savannas (Llanos) bordered by forest, the Atlantic slope is covered in great part 
with an impenetrable jungle. ‘The mountains generally have been cleared of wood to 
about 6000 or 7000 feet, especially on the southern side. 
PANAMA. 
Panama, including Veraguas and Chiriqui, forms the most northern of the United 
States of Colombia. The Cordillera attains a height of 11,265 feet, in the Volcano of 
Chiriqui, becoming lower towards the Isthmus, till at Culebra, where the railway 
crosses, it is only about 300 feet. The climate is excessively wet and the vegetation, 
especially on the Atlantic slope, is most luxuriant, the mountains being clothed with 
dense forest; in the month of March, at the height of the dry season, when the 
“northers” are blowing and bush-fires burning in all directions, most of the country, 
however, appears very dry. On the Pacific side there are extensive savannas, and all 
the towns and villages are in the low land, the only inhabitants in the mountains 
of Chiriqui being the coffee-planters and their employés, people looking after cattle, 
and (towards Veraguas) a few Indians, who, not living in villages, are rarely seen. 
The country adjoining the Costa Rican boundary is clothed with dense forest, and this 
continues more or less interruptedly to beyond the town of David, the ‘* montafa” 
(or forest) of Chorcha extending to the Pacific coast. On the southern side of the 
Volcan de Chiriqui the forest commences at about 2500 feet, 8000 being the greatest 
height reached by our collectors. 
As might be expected from the foregoing description of a region embracing such a 
diversity of high mountains, elevated plains, and low valleys, and with an extremely 
varied rainfall, we find very great differences of climate and conditions, widely affecting 
the vegetation and the distribution of the insect-fauna. 
The classification adopted is in the main that of H. W. Bates, as given in his paper 
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