ADMIN ISTEATION OF PANAMA. 337 



tlie little Raspadura affluent of the Atrato and tlie Rio Perico, wliicli flows 

 through the San Juan to the Pacific. During the rainy season the cutting is at 

 times completely flooded, so that boats are able to utilise it in crossing from slope 

 to slope. But such a casual transit cannot be spoken of as offering a navigable 

 highway from ocean to ocean ; no serious study has yet been made for a cutting 

 across the parting-line at this point. From the mouths of the Atrato on the 

 Atlantic to those of the San Juan on the Pacific the total distance is 220 miles. 



Administration. 



The province of Panama, which till the year 1885 ranked as one of the con- 

 federate states of Colombia, is now nothing more than one of the nine departments 

 of the centralised republic. Its governor, formerly elected by universal suffrage, 

 is at present directly nominated by the president of Colombia. In its political, 

 administrative, and judiciary institutions Panama differs in no respect from the 

 other ColomV)ian departments. It comprises the six subdivisions of David or 

 Chiriqui, Codé or Penonome, Colon, Panama, Los Santos, and Yeragua. The 

 three districts of Balboa, Darien, and the Canal are specially administered. 

 Panama, the capital, had an estimated population of 15,000 in 1890. 



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