IXASHUGHT OF A PIG-UKE CREATURE : THK PONG, NAKED TAIL, HOWEVER," SHOWS 

 IT TO BE A SPECIES OP PANAMA OPOSSUM 



Therefore any infected drainage carry- 

 ing typhoid, tuberculosis, and other wa- 

 ter-borne diseases, productive of fevers 

 or intestinal disorders, should be rigor- 

 ously controlled. Yet this is impossible 

 if scattered habitations and native villages 

 occupy any considerable portion of the 

 amphitheater of hills about the lake basin. 



DANGEROUS TO SHIPPING 



More serious, however, than the im- 

 pairment of this great body of water for 

 domestic uses will be the ever-increasing 

 influx of mosquitoes, heretofore sup- 

 pressed by the activity of the health au- 

 thorities. The difference between drain- 

 ing or spraying local swamps and stag- 

 nant pools along an unfilled canal, with 

 the easy enforcement of health regula- 

 tions among the employees, and that of 

 effectively controlling the inception and 

 spread of mosquitoes in the more than 

 1 60 square miles of tepid waters, sur- 

 rounded by ignorant and uncontrollable 

 natives, is too apparent for argument. 



While the deeper waters and those in 

 which small fish have ready access may 

 not be any great source of trouble, yet 

 the myriad of swamps and pools, the 



thousands of water-holes in shore de- 

 pressions or creek bottoms, will afford a 

 breeding place, and the jungle a refuge, 

 for an army of yellow fever and malarial 

 mosquitoes. Imagine what will follow 

 the relocation of native villages in the 

 neighborhood of these shallow and shel- 

 tered waters. 



Wherever we went about the shores 

 mosquitoes were fairly abundant in the 

 daytime and very numerous at dusk or 

 thereafter. On the several occasions that 

 we boarded a train in the evening at 

 smaller stations adjacent to the lake we 

 noticed the great abundance of mos- 

 quitoes, and especially that of the anoph- 

 eles variety — the carrier of malaria. 



These back-woods stations seem to be 

 the gathering place in the evening of all 

 the neighboring population, and as the 

 cars are unscreened and the windows 

 continuously open, it is easy to see how, 

 in case an epidemic starts at such points, 

 infected mosquitoes will be quickly and 

 continuously conveyed to the large cities 

 at either end of the route. Under such 

 conditions, too, the slow passage of steam- 

 ships by the swampy shores of the lake at 

 all hours of the day and night will invite 



188 



