CLIMATE. 
173 
Extract from the Report of Dr. Kovaleski {sivrgeon to the party 
wider the direction of P. K Trastour) on the climate of the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 
I have the honor to present you the following report on the 
sanitary condition of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec ; made from 
personal observations during a sojourn of one year in the coun- 
try, under circumstances most favorable to test its salubrity. I 
shall state facts as they occurred, from the time of our arrival to 
the date of our return, adding all such reliable information as 
could be obtained from inquiries among the inhabitants, and 
such as came under my own personal observation. 
We arrived at Mina-titlan on the 18th of July, 1850, and left 
it the 30th of the same month. This village, containing about 
400 resident inhabitants, is situated on the left side of the river 
Coatzacoalcos, about twenty miles from its mouth, by which the 
river discharges its waters into the Gulf of Mexico. The country 
along the river approaching Mina-titlan, and for many miles 
beyond it, is an extensive plain, covered with thick forests and 
intersected by numerous tributaries. All these rivers are sub- 
ject to great annual overflows, by which extensive tracts of the 
wooded lands on their banks become temporarily inundated. 
Mina-titlan itself is built on the first link of a group of eleva- 
tions, which, as they recede westward and from the river, be- 
come more and more prominent, and join a platform of the 
country beautifully undulated by valleys, small hills, and slopes, 
in the direction of Jaltipan and other villages chiefly inhabited 
by Indians of the Aztec race, who cultivate portions of the 
neighboring soil. The right shore of the river opposite Mina- 
titlan is flat, and so continues to the heights of Hidalgo-titlan. 
Both north and south of Mina-titlan, a small stream furnishes 
the inhabitants with good drinking-water. On the south side 
the stream loses itself in a marsh, which, during the high wa- 
ters, is overflowed to the foot of the small hill on which the vil- 
lage is built. On the north side there is a narrow valley 
