4^8 Voyage of the Nov ar a. 



hygienic conditions of Panama. About 360 tons of ice are 

 imported into Panama annually, or about one ton per diem. 

 The whole quantity is supplied from the North American 

 lakeSj chiefly from Boston, and is sold in gross at 7 dollars 50 

 cents (about £1 125.) j)er 100 lbs., the retail price being a 

 trifle over a shilling per pound. In order to avoid a glut 

 which might make ice importation unremunerative, and en- 

 danger the steadiness of the supply, the Government has kept 

 in its own hands the monopoly of the ice-trade. 



By Dr. Le Breton, a French physician long settled in 

 Panama, who, together with an Austrian gentleman, Dr. 

 Kratochwil from Saaz in Bohemia, placed me under the 

 deepest obligation for their cordial liospitality, I was furn- 

 ished with a variety of most interesting details of the sani- 

 tary statistics of the Isthmus, and some curious and valuable 

 particulars respecting the poison with which the Indians arm 

 their arrow-tips. In Panama is published a most ably-edited 

 daily paper in English, the ^^ Panama Star and Herald,''^ con- 

 ducted by two Americans, Messrs. Pov/er and Boyd, which so 

 fully and impartially treats of the political, social, and com- 

 mercial condition of the Isthmus and the South American 

 Republics, as makes it indispensable for every one to sub- 

 scribe to it who takes any interest in the development of 

 this remarkable country. It is chiefly due to these two large- 

 minded, far-seeing gentlemen that we possess a statistical 

 detail of tlie very important commerce of the Isthmus, as 

 well as along the west coast of South America. These 



