GENEEAL SUEYEY. 13 



The vital importance of these narrow tongues of land was perceived by- 

 Columbus himself, as he coasted along the shores of Veragua, vainly seeking for 

 the marine channel through which the two oceans were supposed to communicate. 

 But this channel, or rather these channels, for there existed more than one, have 

 been closed by nature since the tertiary epoch, and the work of re-opening them 

 must now be undertaken by man. Pending the accomplishment of this enterprise, 

 roads, and even railways have been laid down from shore to shore. The southern 

 series of isthmuses is already traversed by two railways, those of Panama and 

 Costa Rica, and several others have been begun. 



Unfortunately, the land itself is still indifferently adapted to serve as a hio-h- 

 way of communication between West Europe and the East Asiatic and Austral- 

 asian regions. In many parts of Central America, journeys across the forests, 

 swamps, and unexplored tracts are attended by imminent risk. Not a single 

 explorer is known to have yet followed the direct overland route from Mexico to 

 Columbia. Even in the narrow spaces between the two seas it is dangerous to 

 deviate from the beaten tracks. So great were the difficulties of travel and trans- 

 port that till recently neither east Honduras, north Nicaragua, nor Costa Rica 

 possessed any outlets on the Caribbean Sea. In a commercial sense, these states 

 could scarcely be said to possess an Atlantic seaboard at all. All national life and 

 activity was centred exclusively on the side facing the Pacific Ocean, and from 

 this coast the communications have been very slowly developed across the 

 isthmuses in the direct " V. Atlantic waters. Regarded as n. whr.le, the 



inter-oceanicregionisst.il aluiost an uninhabited wilderness, where the average 

 population scarcely exceeds ten persons to the square mile. 





