608 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
The Republic extends from the border of Costa Rica to the Depart- 
ment of the Cauca, in Colombia, about 470 miles, making, therefore, 
the greatest length from west to east. Panama City is east of Colon, 
a fact very confusing at first to the stranger who sees the sun rise 
in the Pacific and set in the Atlantic. At this point the Isthmus 
is about 47 miles in width, which is not, however, the narrowest part, 
as the distance from the mouth of the Rio Bayano to Mandingo Bay is 
only 30 miles. The country is scarcely half inhabited and in no 
sections at all thickly populated, except the above-mentioned cities — 
and towns stretching along the Panama Railroad and the banks of 
the Chagres. The valleys of the Bayano or Chepo, the Tuyra, and 
lower Chucunaque have scattered villages, but west from Panama ~ 
City, extending through the Department of Chiriqui are several large 
towns or cities with their surrounding districts well populated, the 
whole containing a larger per cent of the “ sangre azul,” white blood, 
than is to be met with outside of the capital city. The high Cordil- 
.leras are believed to be, to a great extent, uninhabited at the present 
day, though in several sections there are known to be numbers of 
Indians, as in the intervening valleys and coasts. 
Geographically, the Isthmus appears to belong to the Northern 
Continent rather than the Southern, of which it has always been a 
part, politically speaking, yet its mountains are detached from those 
of Costa Rica, except a spur crossing the border between Chiriqui 
and Bocas del Toro, and at Darien there is also a decided break before 
reaching the Andes.? 
The mountain elevations vary from 1,500 to 7,000 feet, with the 
three volcanic peaks—Rico Blanco, 11,740; Volcan de Chiriqui or 
Bart, 11,265; and Rovalo, 7,020 (44). In many cases the figures 
given of these mountain elevations must be largely conjectural owing 
to the fact that much of the interior is almost unknown, but those 
obtained by marine surveys are considered more reliable. Panama 
hes 8 degrees from the equator, and has a temperature averaging 
26° C. It has two seasons, wet and dry, the latter lasting only 
from December to April, when it does not rain at all. During this 
period the climate is very agreeable—the days clear and the nights 
brilliant. While modern knowledge of sanitation and hygienic ly- 
ing in tropical countries has done much to improve the largely unde- 
served bad name of the Isthmus, still there are many sections of 
a4*Yja République de Panama appartient au point de vue géographique 4 
VAmérique Centrale. Elle se trouve au bout de la longue bande de terres 
isthmiques qui forment les anneaux de la chaine de montagnes reliant depuis 
des temps tertiaires les continents septentrionaux et méridionaux de ]’Amérique. 
La nature du sol, histoire de sa découverte, lorigine des habitants * * #* 
fait classer la République de Panama parmi les contrées de Amérique Cen- 
trale” (19). 
