NO. I HONDURAS STRONG, KIDDER, AND PAUL 3 



is the fact that at this point occurs one of the easiest passages across 

 the Central American Isthmus from Tehauntepec to Panama." 



From the mouth of the Ulua River, where it enters the Gulf of 

 Honduras, a series of elevated valleys extend up the Rio Blanco to 

 Lake Yojoa, over the plateau of Siguatepeque, across the Plains of 

 Comayagua, and down the valley of the Goascaran River into the 

 Gulf of Fonseca and the Pacific. It can hardly be coincidental that it is 

 at this point that the higher aboriginal cultures of the Pacific High- 

 land extend north to the Caribbean Sea, in marked contrast to the lower 

 cultures of the remainder of the Atlantic Lowland region in Honduras. 

 The present archeological reconnaissance covers the northern half of 

 this natural transition area between the Pacific Highland and the 

 Atlantic Lowland regions. 



If we include the valley of the Chamelecon River, which at no very 

 distant time emptied into the Gulf of Honduras through the Ulua 

 River, this entire area from Lake Yojoa north may be termed the 

 Ulua drainage. The lower portions of the Ulua and Chamelecon Riv- 

 ers flow through the Plain of Sula, a rich alluvial valley, down to their 

 respective mouths in the great mangrove swamps extending along the 

 Gulf of Honduras from Puerto Cortez almost to Tela. Because of 

 these swamps and their shallow, silted-up channels, neither river 

 offers much inducement to modern navigation, whereas such impedi- 

 ments were probably of small import to the numerous trading canoes 

 of pre-Conquest times. Above the mangrove swamps, which extend 

 some 20 kilometers upstream, is the rich valley floor that today is cov- 

 ered with banana plantations. Formerly the valley supported a rich 

 tropical flora, described by Gordon (1898) and others, but at present, 

 except for isolated remnants in swamps and low areas, the great 

 mahogany, ceiba, and other trees, have been replaced by the ubiqui- 

 tous banana. To the northwest the Ulua valley is hemmed in by the 

 great Mountains of Omoa, which reach a height of 7,000 to 8,000 feet. 

 To the east occur the Mountains of Mico Quemado and Tiburon. Be- 

 tween these two ranges the Ulua-Chamelecon valley reaches a breadth 

 of some 45 kilometers, terminating about 75 kilometers in a direct 

 southwest line from the mouth of the Ulua at Potrerillos, where the 



^ This has been pointed out time and again in the voluminous literature referring 

 to the much-talked-of but never completed transoceanic railroad across Honduras. 



See Squier, 1858 and 1870, and Wells, 1857. Although perhaps unduly opti- 

 mistic on some points, Squier's various reports remain the best general geographic 

 descriptions of Honduras. 



Wells gives a detailed and delightful picture of Honduran life in the middle 

 of the last century. So far as the remote interior is concerned, much of his 

 description holds good today. 



