4 BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



on the south. The elevation of the southeastern half of Panama, 

 that is, of Darien, is low, the central continental divide being broken 

 up into disconnected mountain ranges with low lying intermediate 

 passes. This low altitude, together with its situation near the mouth 

 of the San Juan, the Atrato, and the Magdalena, and several other 

 South American rivers, tends to give to southeastern Panama a 

 flora and fauna predominantly characteristic of the tropical low- 

 lying forest region of Colombia adjoining it on the south. 



A like observation may be made with respect to the native 

 aboriginal population of Darien, which shows a much greater re- 

 semblance to the neighboring Indian tribes of South America in 

 speech, physical type, and ethnic traits than to the tribes dwelling 

 beyond the Canal Zone to the north and west. 



Altogether the Republic of Panama is more than 500 miles in 

 length, it averages considerable less than 100 miles from its Carib- 

 bean coast on the north to the Pacific on the south; it resembles 

 in contour a semiinverted letter S, thus go , with its most north- 

 erly position situated only three degrees north of its most southerly 

 projection. With its greatest length to the east and to the west, 

 Darien lies due south of eastern Cuba and in the latitude of north- 

 ern Borneo and Ceylon. If the curves of the recumbent S-shape 

 coast line might be straightened, the mistaken statement, attributed 

 to Balboa, referring to the Pacific as the Southern Sea, would be 

 correct. 



The narrow crossing between the cities of Colon on the Carib- 

 bean, and Panama on the Pacific coast was formerly called the 

 Isthmus of Panama, while the other crossings farther east were 

 called the Isthmus of San Bias and the Isthmus of Darien, respec- 

 tively 31 and 46 miles in length. The use of the term " Isthmus of 

 Panama " to include the whole country between the Caribbean and 

 the Pacific from Costa Rica to the boundary of Colombia is now 

 prevalent. 



Caribbean coast. — About 100 miles down the Caribbean coast 

 eastward of Colon, at the narrowest part of the Isthmus, is the Gulf 

 of San Bias, 20 miles long and 10 miles wide. At the entrance of 

 the bay are grouped the islands known as the Mulatas Archipelago, 

 low lying, sandy, coralline islands known as cays, extending along 

 the coast to the east and south and numbering about 600, most of 

 which are too small for habitation. Still farther east along the 

 Caribbean coast lies Caledonia Bay. It was here that William 

 Patterson, under the auspices of " The Company of Scotland, trad- 

 ing to Africa and the Indies," settled in 1698. Living on friendly 

 terms with the native tribes, Patterson and his colonists had to 

 abandon the settlement after two years on account of the hostility 

 of the Spanish further west and lack of support from England. 



