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NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



*Sapper, Karl T. Grundzi'ige der phy- 

 sikalischen geographic von Guate- 

 mala. Gotha. 1894. 



Rodriguez, Juan J. Apuntamientos 

 sobre los estudios de biologia en 

 Guatemala e importancia de estos 

 estudios. . . . Guatemala. 1893. 



Dearborn, Ned. Catalogue of a col- 

 lection of birds from Guatemala. 

 Chicago. 1907. (Field Museum of 

 Natural History. Publication 125.) 



*Rodriguez, Juan J. Memoria sobre la 

 fauna de Guatemala. Guatemala. 

 1894. 



Blake, Sidney F. Native names and 

 uses of some plants of eastern Guate- 

 mala and Honduras. Washington, 

 D. C. 1922. (Contr. Nat. Herb., 

 Vol. 24, pt. 4.) 



Blake, Sidney F. New Plants from 

 Guatemala and Honduras. Wash- 

 ington. 1922. (Contr. Nat. Herb., 

 Vol. 24, pt. 1.) 



Brigham, William T. The Guatemalan 

 Forests and their Future. Trans. 

 Mass. Hort. Soc. 1884 (pt. 1): 

 159-173, 1885. 



Smith, John Donnell. Enumeratio 

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 1921. 



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 (Guatemala). Hamburg, Germany. 

 1902. 



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3. BRITISH HONDURAS 

 By Karl P. Schmidt 



I. GENERAL CONDITIONS 



1. Topography 



British Honduras lies at the south- 

 eastern corner of the Yucatan Penin- 

 sula. The northern part of the country 

 is a part of the typical tertiary limestone 

 area of Yucatan, with its characteristic 



lakes. To the southeast, the coastal 

 region is a tropical lowland which rises 

 gradually to the west where, on the 

 western border, a plateau level of over 

 1500 ft. is reached. An isolated moun- 

 tain mass, the Cockscomb Mountains, 

 reaches 3600 ft. altitude, the highest in 

 British Honduras. 



2. Climate 



The climate is typically tropical, 

 with a rainj^ season from May to Janu- 

 ary. The heat is much relieved by the 

 steady sea breeze along the coast. 



II. ORIGINAL BIOTA 



The tropical rain-forest of the low- 

 lands of British Honduras abounds with 

 the characteristic tropical mammals 

 and birds of Central America, such as 

 tapir, jaguar, brocket deer, curassow 

 and yellow throated toucan. A distinct 

 species of crocodile (Crocodylus more- 

 lelii) is found in the swamps near Belize, 

 and manatee is reported to be fairly 

 common in the rivers. The small 

 population and the great extent of 

 forest, from which at most the mahogany 

 has been removed, offers an assurance 

 of easily accessible primitive conditions. 



British Honduras offers a number of 

 advantages to the North American 

 biologist, among which are ready acces- 

 sibility from New Orleans, English 

 speaking natives, and great areas of 

 untouched forest. Twenty-five mi. of 

 railroad lead to an abandoned United 

 Fruit Company plantation, which is 

 surrounded by an uninhabited wilder- 

 ness. At this plantation, excellent 

 accommodations, and the services of 

 the few remaining workmen are avail- 

 able. The chain of coral cays off the 

 coast offers ready access to coral reef 

 and tide-pool marine life, while their 

 shoreward sides are in many cases a 

 mass of mangrove. 



Morris, Daniel. 



1883. The colony of British Honduras, 

 its resources and prospects; 

 with particular reference to its 



