49 
made the commission I received in the early part of this year, . to 
inspect and report upon the state and possibilities of the extensive 
rubber plantation of the Las Cascadas Plantations Company Limited, 
at the very outset an acceptable one. The fact that this plantation 
is situated in the Isthmus of Panama seemed to me a comparative- 
1 V slight matter, although I must own to occasional apprehensive 
pangs" on being treated by some of my friends, and others, to some- 
what vivid descriptions of the terrors of mosquitos, malaria, yellow 
fever, and small-pox. I will say at once here that I found all these 
blood-curdling stories gross exaggerations. Colon is certainly an 
abominable hole, but had I to take the choice, I would, without an 
instant’s hesitation, prefer to live at Colon rather than in the slum 
districts of either London, Manchester or Salford. The same, only 
more so, is to be said of Panama, which is a fairly well built town 
upon rocky sub-soil. Particularly the mosquito bogey appears to 
me an absurd exaggeration as far as the isthmus is concerned. 
Only once during the whole journey did 1 get really badly bitten, 
this was in mv cabin on board the R M. S. “ Para' on the first 
night after leaving Jamaica for Colon. It appears that besides 
taking in coal at that port, we had also shipped a liberal consign- 
ment of mosquitos. 
The real trouble of an expedition like the one I undertook was 
never suggested to me; it consists in the fact that as soon as one 
leaves the beaten track (Colon to Panama) every trace of civilized 
comforts at once vanish. The food is atrociously bad, the cooking 
worse ; all drinks, even water taken direct from the streams, are 
at almost fever heat and often there is nothing to be had* but rain 
water. It is this bad food, the monotony of the diet, and the insi- 
pidity of tepid drinks which I felt to render a stay in the Tropics 
rather trying. Of course, on a plantation with a well established 
settlement, all these difficultities largely disappear. 
As is well known, the stretch of the isthmus from Colon to Pa- 
nama, through which runs the track of the illustrated Panama Canal, 
is all low-lying, on the Colon side largely swampy land, the mean 
elevation of which above sea level does certainly not exceed 80 
feet. There are a number of banana plantations along side, or 
within near distance of the canal track, but nothing of any magni- 
tude. , . 
Shortly after leaving Colon, the mountain ranges appearing in 
the far distance, south and south west of the town, begin to slowly 
close in upon the track of the canal, coming eventually near Pana- 
ma, rioht upon it, and it is this hill district which, intersected by 
innumerable small rivers and brocks, very gradually rises to alti- 
tudes 1,200 feet and upwards, which furnishes at altitudes of from 
200 to 8oo feet, or perhaps even somewhat higher, the most suit- 
able land for the cultivation of India-rubber, cacao and coffee. 
In this hill district, connected by their own road with Las Cas- 
cadas station, lies the plantaMon of the Las Cascadas Plantations 
Company Limited, which comprise a total area of very many acres, 
a large part of which is planted out with rubber (Castilloa elastica) 
cacao and coffe^. I he number of rubber trees on the plantation 
