AREA AND BOUNDARIES. 



Act of 1870. By this enactment, a Legislative Council is 

 established, consisting of five official, and not less than four 

 unofficial members, to be named by the Queen, or provisionally 

 appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor, subject to Her Majesty's 

 approval. The official members are : the Chief Justice, the 

 Colonial Secretary, the Senior Military Officer (if of or above 

 the rank of Major), the Treasurer, and the Attorney-General. 

 The Lieutenant-Governor is President of the Council. 



There is also an Executive or Privy Council, consisting of the 

 Senior Military Officer, the Colonial Secretary, the Treasurer, 

 and the Attorney-General. (If below the rank of Major, the 

 Senior Military Officer ranks last.) 



British Honduras has a sea-board, extending almost due 

 north and south, of about 160 miles ; it contains an estimated 

 area of about 7,500 square miles. Thus the colony is about one- 

 third the size of England ; nearly twice the size of Jamaica ; and 

 almost equal to the whole of the British West India Islands put 

 together. 



The boundaries of the colony are defined by the river 

 Hondu and Yucatan on the north; by a straight line drawn 

 from the rapids of Gracias a Dios on the river Sarstoon to 

 Garbutt's Falls on the river Belize, thence due north to the 

 Mexican frontier, on the west ; by a portion of Guatemala with 

 the Sarstoon Eiver on the south ; while the Bay of Honduras 

 and the Caribbean Sea are to the east. 



Along the whole of the coast, and extending for many miles 

 to the eastward, are numerous coral islands, or cays, some of 

 which are simply covered with mangrove-trees, whilst others 

 are under partial cultivation. The largest of these coral islands 

 is Turneffe (Terra Nova), lying about 30 miles from Belize, 

 composed of numerous mangrove cays and lagoons, with here 

 and there passages for boats. To the extreme east there are 



