PANAMA 





PANAMA 



Fathers lauded on Plymouth Koek. The 

 O f Peru : d '" Panama. 



:ul to Puerto Hello. :m.l 

 - khe At- 



laiilu-. The COIIM ruction of a canal aero- th. 



Minim.*, a I'ainiliar matter of recent lu.-iorv. 



|l red by the Spaniards hundreds of 



1:0. and tlit story of the various attempt.- 



in build >uch a waterway, culminating in the 



successful effort on the part of the I'nited 



niir narrati\ . 



Size and Location. The country of Panama 

 is long and narrow, and runs approximately east 

 Mid ue-t. The northern coa-t is washed by the 

 Caribbean Sea, an arm of the Atlantic, and the 

 southern by the Pacific Ocean. On the east 

 public 



if Colomb; 



on the wot the 



1 American 



of Costa 

 According 

 to official figures, 

 Panama covers 

 an area of 32,380 

 square mi 

 little less than 

 that of Maine, 

 but the land 

 boundaries are 



i definitely 



-tabli>hed. a n d 



stimate is 

 only 

 r ii -i tf.lv 



LOCATION MAP 

 Since the political separa- 

 approxi- tion of Panama from Colom- 

 bia there has been consider- 

 able discussion of the question 

 The length is "f Panama's geographical 

 status. As a part of Colom- 

 about 425 mile.-, i,j a j t W as also a part of the 

 -,nH thn hivultli S()Ul1 ' American continent. As 

 11 an independent country, whose 

 varies fro m interests are with the United 

 States largely, many geog- 



t limy-one miles raj.ii.-rs now declare it to be 

 to 118 miles, the ' x '" th American division. 

 average breadth being seventy miles. The 

 -oa-t line on the Caribbean Sea is 478 miles; 

 that (m the Pacific. 767 miles. The latter is 

 deeply indented by the (lull* of Panama. A 

 strip of land live mile- wide on each -ide of 

 the Panama Canal i- included in tin- Canal 

 Zone (see PANAMA CANAIJ. 



Population. The inhabitant- of the republic, 

 without counting the people in the Canal Zone, 

 numbered 336,742 in 1912. The population is 

 made up of whites, who are mostly of Spanish 

 descent; of Indians, who are natives of this 

 . of blacks, descendant- of the slaves 

 brought from Africa; and of ine.-n/n.-. a dark- 

 skinned people of mixed Spaiii-h. Indian and 



negro descent. The latter form more than half 



ft" (he population. There are, besides, hundreds 



of Kuropeans and people from the United 



j; the latter are increasing in number. 



Cities. The two principal cities and seaports, 

 and the terminals of the Canal, are Panama. 

 the capital, on the Pacific side, with 60,028 in- 

 habitants in 1915, and Colon, on the Atlantic. 

 with a population of 36,000. Neither of these 

 cities is included in the government of the 

 Canal Zone. On the Pacific coast are the 

 smaller ports of Agua Dulce, Pedregal, Montijo 

 and Puerto Mudis; on the Atlantic are Bocas 

 del Toro and Puerto Bello. 



Physical Features. The greater part of tin- 

 country is occupied by forest-covered hills and 

 low mountains, separated by deeply-cut drain- 

 age valleys. In the western section, near the 

 Costa Rica boundary, several lofty extinct vol- 

 canoes, some over 11,000 feet in altitude, give 

 the scenery an element of grandeur. In th it- 

 section the mountains are arranged in regular 

 system-;, but as a whole the hills and mountains 

 of Panama are of irregular distribution. There 

 are three passes through the highlands, afford- 

 ing communication between the two seacoa-t> 

 San Bias, Caledonia and Culebra. Through the 

 last-named, which is the lowest, the Panama 

 Canal was cut. 



Over 300 of the streams of the isthmus flow 

 into the Pacific, and about 150 into the At- 

 lantic. The country between the Colombia 

 boundary and the Gulf of Panama is drained 

 chiefly by the Tuiara, which flows into the 

 Pacific; west of this section is a region drained 

 by the Bayano, or Chepo, and its tributaries; 

 still farther west is the great drainage basin of 

 the Chagres, the waters of which arc utilized 

 to supply the locks of the canal. The country 

 westward to the Costa Rican boundary i.- wa- 

 tered by several minor river systems. There are 

 no natural lakes. 



Climate. Panama has a tropical climate, for 

 the Canal Zone is only nine degrees north of 

 the equator. The mean annual temperature is 

 over 80 F., which is about twenty-live deuree- 

 higher than the mean annual temperature of 

 the chief cities in the Southern United States. 

 The year has only I wo seasons, a rainy 

 and a dry season. The former la>ts eight 

 months, from April to December, but even 

 during the dry season showers are frequent; in 

 fact, Panama is one of the wettest region- in 

 the New World. In Colon there are usually 

 196 rainy days during the year, and the aver- 

 i. i: y ally rainfall is 140 inches. In Panama 



