AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 21 



Indians, whom it has hitherto been found difficult to reach for the pur- 

 pose of vaccination. This, however, has been to a very large extent 

 remedied and a more thorough system has been established. Cholera 

 has not been known in this colony since 1866 and on that occasion it 

 was brought here in a ship from South America. The following extract 

 from an article written by Alexander Hunter, esq., late colonial sur- 

 geon, will convey a fair idea of the climate of this country: 



The characteristic features of the climate of British Honduras during the greater 

 portion of the year are a most equable temperature, with strong easterly breezes 

 in the summer months or dry season; an absence of rain for three or four months 

 from the end of January ; and in the winter months cold northerly winds, which 

 are generally dry and bracing; and land winds, fortunately not continuous, which 

 usually bring a great deal of moisture from the neighboring collections of water, 

 and much rain. Exposed to the full influence of the trade winds, the whole coast 

 may be considered as unexceptionally healthy during their continuance, while the 

 temperature does not vary more than 6 or 8 during the twenty- four hours. The 

 atmosphere is dry, indeed it would be difficult to point out any place in the West 

 Indies in which the humidity is so inconsiderable. During the rainy season, the 

 commencement of which is variable, there are sometimes short periods of calm, in 

 which, although the temperature is not appreciably heightened, the feeling of heat 

 is great ; but, fortunately, these calms are of rare occurrence and of short duration. 

 The rainfall is variable; but from observations extending over a period of twenty- 

 five years, the general average for a year is found to be between 40 and 50 inches. 



The country around Belize is swampy and covered with dense mangrove bushes; 

 but as these swamps communicate freely with the sea, and as they are constantly 

 being filled and emptied by the flow and ebb of the tide, the malarious emanations, 

 which under other circumstances would be sure to follow, are prevented by the 

 mechanical, and perhaps chemical, changes which these collections of water undergo. 

 This circumstance, combined with the frequency and strength of the sea breezes, 

 forms the principal reason for that remarkable immunity from miasmatic diseases 

 which the population enjoys, and which is all the more extraordinary when it is 

 considered that all the essentials for the evolution of these noxious emanations 

 exist, viz, heat, moisture, and decaying animal and vegetable matter. 



GENERAL BUILDING. 



House building has increased to a very great extent during the past 

 ten years, especially among the poorer classes who, by means of the 

 fruit trade which was established between this colony and New Orleans 

 some thirteen year sago, have been enabled to erect their own dwellings. 



Boat and schooner building has also increased to a great extent from 

 the same cause, though the growing state of the logwood and other 

 industries has contributed thereto. 



Bail road building has not been engaged in, and it is difficult to say 

 whether British Honduras will ever be blessed by the civilizing influ- 

 ences of the iron horse. 



JAMES LEITCH, 



Consul 



BELIZE, March 5, 1894. 



