Ch. I.] CLIMATE OF GREYTOWX. 5 



.sights in Greytown. I found Mr. Paton, the vice-consul, 

 equally obliging, and I am indebted to him for much in- 

 formation respecting the trade of the port, particularly 

 with regard to the export of India-rubber, the develop- 

 ment of which trade he was one of the first to encourage. 

 Behind the town there is a Ions; lasroon, and for several 



O O ' 



miles back the land is quite level, and interspersed with 

 lakes and ponds with much marshy ground. Perfectly 

 level, surrounded by swamps, and without any system 

 of drainage, either natural or artificial, excepting such as 

 the sandy soil affords, Greytown might be thought a very 

 -unhealthy site for a town. Notwithstanding, however, 

 its apparent disadvantages, and that for nine months of 

 the year it is subject to heavy tropical rains, it is com- 

 paratively healthy, and freer from fever than many places 

 tlrat appear at first sight better situated. Much is due 

 to the porous sandy soil, but more I believe to what 

 appears at first sight an element of danger, the perfect 

 .flatness of the ground. Where there are hills there 

 must be hollows, and in these the air stagnates ; whilst 

 here, where the land is quite level, the trade winds that 

 blow pretty constantly find their way to every part, and 

 carry off the emanations from the soil. As a similar in- 

 stance I may mention the city of Pernambuco, on the 

 eastern coast of Brazil, containing 80,000 inhabitants. 

 It is perfectly level like Greytown, surrounded and in- 

 tersected with channels of water, above the level of which 

 it only stands a few feet. The crowded parts of the town 

 .are noted for their evil smells and filth, but, though entirely 

 without drainage it is noted for its healthiness ; whilst a 

 little lower down the coast the town of Maceio, situated . 

 :about sixty feet above the sea, surrounded by undulating 



