NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



601 



indigenous plants and eco- 

 nomic productions. London: 

 E. Stafford. 12, XIII + 

 152 p. 



4. HONDURAS 



BY KARL P. SCHMIDT 



I. GENERAL ACCOUNT 



1. Topography 



Honduras includes the mountainous 

 highland which connects the moun- 

 tains of Guatemala and Nicaragua. 

 This central highland rises to a general 

 level of about 5000 ft., above which are 

 higher isolated peaks and ranges, and 

 below which are the deeply cut and 

 often broad valleys of the principal 

 rivers. With the exception of the 

 triangular area which touches the Bay 

 of Fonseca, the drainage is Atlantic. 

 No less than five considerable rivers 

 flow into the Caribbean Sea, besides 

 the Wanks on the Nicaraguan boundary. 

 Of these rivers, the Chamelecon and 

 Ulua to the west are close together 

 and their valleys combine to form the 

 Valle de Sula, which is the most thickly 

 inhabited area in Honduras. The north- 

 east corner of the country is one of the 

 least explored areas in Central America. 

 The mountains are heavily dissected, 

 and many ranges are isolated outliers 

 of the general mass. The northward 

 spur from the highland, which roughly 

 marks the Honduran-Guatemalan 

 border, reaches a height of 6000 ft. 

 and approaches within 20 mi. of the 

 north coast. The Sierra de Pija is a 

 still more detached range. The Co- 

 mayagua valley forms a pass, probably 

 below 2000 ft., which opens to the north 

 into the valley of the Ulua and to the 

 south into a river flowing into the Bay 

 of Fonseca. A single large interior 

 lake, Lake Yojoa, lies at 2000 ft. above 

 sea level, on the northward slope of the 

 central highland. 



8. Climate 



The climate is intensely hot along the 

 coastal plains, much modified by alti- 



tude in the interior. The Pacific coast 

 is much drier than the north coast, 

 although at the height of the dry season, 

 even this assumes a surprisingly arid 

 appearance. Some of the interior val- 

 leys, from which the rains are cut off 

 by mountains, resemble the Pacific 

 coastal plain more than they do the 

 Caribbean, into which their rivers 

 flow. The rainy season begins about 

 June first and extends until November 

 with little interruption. The dry season 

 is, likewise, continuous, producing a 

 strong contrast between the two on 

 the north coast, which becomes much 

 less marked in the interior. 



II. ORIGINAL BIOTA 



The principal floral and faunal sub- 

 divisions that suggest themselves are: 



1. The tropical coastal-plain forest 

 on the north. 



2. An Oak-Pine zone from 1000 to 

 4000 ft. in the outlying mountains to 

 the north. 



3. A sub-temperate cloud forest above 

 4000 ft. in mountains to the north. 

 This receives the trade winds. 



4. The pine clad mountains of the 

 interior. 



5. The semi-arid Pacific slope. 



Of these, the first is sharply char- 

 acterized by the presence of the Cohune 

 Palm, together with common tropical 

 forest trees such as mahogany, fig, 

 and silk-cotton. It is the typical 

 habitat of the strictly tropical mammals 

 among which are the White-faced and 

 howling monkeys, the jaguar and ocelot, 

 the Central American tapir, peccaries, 

 and ant-eaters, armadillos, pacas, etc. 



The second is an oak and pine forest, 

 the oaks often hung with Spanish moss. 

 The Cohune palm appears to be absent. 

 The mammals appear to be those of the 

 lowland. 



The third offers moisture conditions 

 which give it a rich flora of epiphites 

 and tree-ferns, in a mixed hardwood 

 forest. Several species of dwarf palm 

 are abundant. There is a considerable 

 fauna of tree-frogs and arboreal sala- 

 manders confined to it, and many birds, 



