144 REPORT—1 863. 
panions during the explorations in Central America, from which we have just 
returned, will not alone prove interesting as additions to our geographical know- 
ledge, but be the means of conferring happiness upon hundreds of thousands of our 
fellow-countrymen at the antipodes, of vastly increasing and directing the flow of 
commerce from the great producing countries of the Pacific into English channels, 
and, furthermore, of offering to our energy and eapital a new field of enterprise 
of boundless extent and inexhaustible resources. 
I propose to discuss my subject under two heads, viz.:—1. The physical aspect 
of Central America; 2. The great political and commercial importance of a rail- 
road transit across it. 
In defining the boundaries of Central America, I do not restrict myself to that 
part commonly called the Isthmus of Panama, but include the entire country, from 
the first narrowing of North America at Tehuantepec to its final expansion into 
South America at Darien. This large extent of country, the centre of the New 
World, is included between the 7th and 18th parallels of north latitude and the 
77th and 94th meridians of west longitude. There are no less than four crossings 
or isthmuses within the above boundaries, the narrowest of which, in lat. 9° north 
and long. 79° west, is only 27 miles across, while the broadest is not 200 miles from 
. ocean to ocean. The extent of the coast-line, counting all its sinuosities, is 3000 
miles, the length from end to end about 1350 in a direction N.W. and 8.E., and the 
area 306,000 square miles, or about the size of England and France. The population 
is about 2,859,000, or an average of rather more than nine to the square mile. 
The climate of Central America is equable. There are two seasons, the wet and 
dry, or summer and winter. 
The maximum range of the thermometer in the interior of Nicaragua, the 
central state or republic, is about 90° ; the temperature in the dry season is much 
cooler, and often quite chilly; but the following observations will give some idea 
of the atmospherical laws by which the climate is governed. Annual rain-fall 
97-7 inches; rain fell 138 days; mean highest temp., 86°; lowest, 71°; yearly 
average, 77°. 
The prevailing type of disease is a low intermittent fever; but that the general 
healthiness of the country is above the average in the tropics is proved by the 
vigorous old age of the inhabitants and the small Py of deaths amongst 
the residents. The more violent forms of disease haye never been experienced, 
and yellow fever is unknown. 
The general aspect and scenery of Central America is most varied, and perhaps, 
on the whole, unrivalled in the world. The Atlantic coast-line is for the most 
ey low, and fringed with primeval forests ; magnificent rivers, coming from the 
‘ar interior, empty themselves into the Caribbean Sea, and these again are inter- 
sected near their mouths by extensive lagoons, forming an interior navigation, 
close to the shore, for many hundreds of miles, and offering the greatest facilities 
for the growth and export of cotton of any locality I have ever visited. 
Inland, nature has been prodigal of her gifts, and has put on her grandest forms. 
Towering mountains and volcanos, magnificent savannas, level plains, and beauti- 
ful lakes, dotted with the most romantic islands, the whole combined with a 
fertility of soil and salubrity of climate unsurpassed in the tropics. 
Of its manifold productions those best known are precious metals, cochineal, 
indigo, sarsaparilla, vanilla, india rubber, balsam, copal, cotton, copaiba, cocoa, 
coffee, tobacco, hides, mahogany, cedar, live oak, several dyewoods, pitch-pine, 
containing a large quantity of tar, lignum vite, cascarilla, a great variety of hard 
woods, silk-gerass, tortoise shell, &c. 
In short, from its geographical position, climate, and inexhaustible natural 
wealth, Central America may safely be looked upon as offering to enterprise the 
most desirable field in the world. 
The above is a brief sketch of the centre of the New World under its physical 
aspect. It remains to point out in what manner so promising a country may be 
utilized. I propose, by the construction of a transit by railroad from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean, through the heart of the central state, or rather republic, of 
Nicaragua, to open up the entire country; and I am anxious to make this transit a 
great highway of nations for all the world. 
