256 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



been gradually resettled, but tbe highest estimates assign it a population of not 

 more than six persons to the square mile. 



Physical Features, 



Like Guatemala, Honduras is of triangular shape, but its position is reversed, 

 so that its base rests on the Atlantic, and its apex reaches the Pacific at Fonseca Bay. 



The limits of the state are, how- 



Fisr. 111.- 



-iNTEr.ocEANic Wateepaeting, Hoîîdueas. 

 Scale 1 : 483,rX)0. 



ever, almost everywhere indi- 

 cated, not by conventional lines as 

 elsewhere, but by such natural 

 features as mountains and river 

 valleys. In the north-west it is 

 separated from Guatemala by a 

 winding frontier, which, while 

 assigning to Honduras the Guate- 

 malan valley of Copan, coincides 

 in a general way with the crests 

 of the Merendon, Espiritu Santo 

 and Grita ranges, beyond which 

 it follows the course of the llio 

 Tinto to a secondary inlet of 

 Honduras Bay. 



Towards Salvador the frontier 

 is formed mainly by the Rivers 

 Sumpul, Lempa, Tonola and Goas- 

 coran, and towards Nicaragua by 

 the Pio Negro on the Pacific side, 

 and by the Ocotal and Segovia 

 on the Atlantic slope, the common 

 waterparting being indicated by 

 the Dipilto range. 



The interior is still imperfectly 

 known, but the country may, in 

 a general way, be said to be di- 

 vided into two unequal slopes by 

 a sierra madre disposed parallel 

 with, and at a mean distance of 

 about 60 miles from, the Pacific coast. This range is much more precipitous on 

 the Pacific than on the Atlantic side, so that the south side should be regarded 

 rather as the escarpment of a plateau carved into distinct masses by streams 

 flowing north to the Caribbean Sea. 



Towards the west or Guatemalan frontier the Sierra de Pacaya (6,600 feet) 

 branches off from the Merendon range and farther on merges in the Sierra de 

 Selaque, round which the running waters diverge in all directions. Here the 



12 Miles. 



