TOPOGRAPHY AND RAILROADS 



13 



Distance from Limon 



Altitude 



Principal Stations 



Tres Rios 96 . o. 



San Jose 102 . i . 



Heredia 108. 1 . 



San Joaquin no. 7. 



Echeverria 112. o. 



Alajuela ii5-7- 



■4363- 

 .3868. 

 ,3780. 



•3231 



METERS 



1330. 

 II79. 

 II52. 



905 



The gauge of all the railroads In Costa Rica, on both the 

 Atlantic and the Pacific sides, is the same, three feet, six 

 inches (1.0668 meters). The passenger coaches, at the time 

 of our visit, were of the American type, and of two classes, 

 differing chiefly in the character of the seats; in the first 

 class these were covered with cane or leather, in the second 

 were simply uncovered wood. Some coaches were divided 

 into a first and a second class section by a partition with a 

 door in the center. On the daily train each way between 

 Limon and San Jose there was also a "chair car" at the end 

 of the train. In this the seats were comfortable wicker arm 

 chairs which the passengers could move about or carry to 

 the large observation platform at the rear of the car, which 

 allowed a fine view of the country for the whole way. There 

 were no return, excursion or commutation tickets on the At- 

 lantic railroads; the rate of fare was about four cents (U. S.) 

 a mile, first class, and anyone failing to purchase a ticket 

 before boarding a train at any place where tickets were sold 

 was fined 50 centimos (= 23+ cents, U. S.) which fine was 

 not refunded. An extra charge was made for the chair car, 

 which made the total fare between Limon and San Jose 

 nearly six dollars. When we made our first journey from 

 Limon to San Jose on May 3, 1909, our baggage was divided 

 into two lots; one weighing 142 kilos was checked to Car- 

 tage, the other to San Jose. After deducting an allowance 

 of 20 kilos free on each of our tickets, we paid 17 colones, 40 



