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It is the sea terminal of the railroad and is a centre for the exportation 
of coffee, rubber and timber ; a large development of the banana trade is 
looked forward to, as the railway enables the fruit to be run on to the jetty, 
alongside of which the fruit steamers are made fast. 
The line which will connect the coast with Guatemala City is still under 
construction. When the line is completed Guatemala will possess an Inter- 
oceanic Railroad. Already that portion of the line, 74 miles long, from San 
Josd on the Pacific coast to Guatemala City has been constructed, and the line 
from Puerto Barrios to El Rancho (134 miles) has also been finished; there 
remains an intervening strip of 63 miles, which is now under construction. 
It is of importance also to note that Mexico and Panama have already their 
Interoceanic Railroads, that Costa Rica is completing one, and as will 
be shown directly Spanish Honduras also aspires to an interoceanic road. These 
railroads, connecting the east and west coasts of Central America, must be 
taken into account in problems bearing upon the spread of disease from the 
Pacific Coast to the Atlantic, and vice versa ; they are also traffic routes which 
materially shorten the distance from the United and Central American States to 
the East. 
. There are some 15 whites in Puerto Barrios, and their quarters are 
separated from the native village. I made an examination of many ol the lots 
and found the usual large vats connected to the few public offices and large 
houses which exist, and very numerous barrels in the yards in the native town. 
The barrels contained Stegomyia larvae in abundance, and I was able to identify 
numerous adult mosquitoes. 1 hey are as abundant in proportion as in any 
other coast town. It was therefore not from absence of the Yellow fever 
mosquito that Puerto Barrios escaped. At the time of the epidemic in the other 
coast towns there was a large accumulation of creosoted sleepers in Barrios for 
transportation up the line, and by some it is thought the smell might have acted 
as a mosquito destroyer, but I do not think it could have had the least effect upon 
the innumerable larvae in the barrels. 
There were white non-immunes in Barrios at the time, and we must 
attribute their escape, therefore, either to the freedom from infection of the 
Stegomyia , although only within one and a-half hours run from Livingston, due 
to effective quarantine, to the partial segregation ol the whites, or to the whites 
removing up the line for a time. 1 
Santa Thomas lies opposite Puerto Barrios, across the bight of St. 
Thomas Fruit is exported from it, but its place is now taken by Barrios with 
its railway. There were suspicious cases of fever present in September. 
SPANISH HONDURAS. 
The Ports : Puerto Cortes, Omoa, Tela, Ceiba, Utila, Ruatan and 
Trujillo. 
The Interior Towns : San Pedro, Rio Blanco, Chamilicon and Ciioloma. 
Puerto Cortes . — The principal seaport town in Spanish Honduras consists 
of a very narrow town, two to three lots deep, curving round the bay. 
