NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



607 



mately 100 mi. away. Under favorable 

 conditions ox teams with machinery 

 have suceeded in reaching Matagalpa. 

 Another trail to the same town starts 

 from Savana Grande on the railroad, a 

 distance of 110 mi. This latter is the 

 road used by travelers on horse or mule 

 back. From Matagalpa a trail runs 

 northward over the mountains to Jino- 

 tega where it forks, one branch going to 

 San Rafael del Norte and the other to 

 Ocotal. The chief difficulty for the 

 stranger is in obtaining mules to trans- 

 port himself and his baggage along the 

 trails mentioned. No one is anxious to 

 hire out his mules, and no native of the 

 lower classes will do any kind of work as 

 guide or muleteer if he can possibly 

 avoid it. One should allow three days 

 on the road to Matagalpa, from Mata- 

 galpa to Jinotega one day, from there 

 to San Rafael two days, to Ocotal 

 three days. In addition the traveler 

 must allow an indefinite number of days 

 or weeks at the various starting places 

 to acquire mules. He who reaches 

 Matagalpa from Corinto in less than two 

 weeks will be fortunate. Localities 

 north of Matagalpa he will probably 

 not reach at all in the rainy season. 



On the Pacific Slope the volcanoes 

 Vie jo, best reached from Chinandega 

 on the railroad, and Mombacho, reached 

 from Granada, are places worthy of 

 careful study. Any section of the 

 Carribean rain forest is worthy of a 

 visit. The fauna and flora around 

 Matagalpa are quite different from 

 those of the lowlands, and at San Rafael 

 del Norte the traveler is in the heart 

 of the pine forest, with the high sub- 

 tropical rain forest just above that. 

 It is obvious that off the trails men- 

 tioned are vast areas of country with 

 diversified climate and topography 

 which still await the exploration of a 

 scientist. Travelers should be warned, 

 however, that to reach any of the more 

 interesting and remote places mentioned 

 is a lengthy and a costly job. Explora- 

 tion in Nicaragua except on the Pacific 

 Slope could not be done for less than 

 one thousand dollars a month, if new 

 territory were to be investigated. 



7. COSTA RICAi 

 BY LUDLOW GRISCOM 



I. GENERAL CONDITIONS 



/. Topography 



Costa Rica is bounded on the north 

 by Nicaragua, on the south by Panama, 

 east by the Caribbean Sea, and west by 

 the Pacific Ocean. It has an area of 

 about 18,500 sq. mi., and may be roughly 

 described as a highly mountainous and 

 broken country lying wholly in the 

 tropics. 



The chief physiographic feature is the 

 lofty volcanic mountain ranges which 

 follow the general trend of the continent 

 from northwest to southeast. The 

 whole central portion of the country 

 is a broken tableland, lying to the south- 

 west of the main range of the Cordillera, 

 and bounded on the Pacific side by 

 various broken and irregular mountain 

 masses, more or less isolated from each 

 other. As a result the coastal plains 

 on both sides are narrow, varying from 

 almost nothing to 25 or 30 mi. in width. 

 The only exception to this statement 

 is the northern and northeastern part 

 of the country, which is comparatively 

 flat and low, draining into Lake Nica- 

 ragua or its outlet, the Rio San Juan. 

 The more northerly range rises with 

 great abruptness in the extreme north- 

 west corner of the country from the 

 low level Pacific plain of Nicaragua. 

 Composed at first of a succession of 

 volcanic cones, such as Orosi (5185 ft.), 

 Miravalles (4698), and Tenorio (6800), 

 it changes to a highland, for over 50 

 mi. without a single volcano. Poas 

 (8895) begins a new series of volcanic 

 peaks culminating in Irazu (11,200) 



1 The relatively little thorough exploration of this 

 country, compared with areas of similar size in 

 North America, renders a very general account 

 necessary, and detail is impossible. No ecological 

 literature exists, but the reader is referred to Car- 

 riker's Birds of Costa Rica, Annals Carnegie Mus- 

 eum, Vol. VI, No. 4, August, 1910, for a general ac- 

 count of the physiography and faunal distribution, 

 the latter, however, requiring extensive modification. 

 "A Year of Costa Rican Natural History" by P. P. 

 & A. S. Calvert (MacMillan & Co., 1917) gives an ex- 

 cellent account of life in the country and there is an 

 extensive bibliography. 



