4 
HARRINGTON. 
each side by a tropical sea. It extends through ten degrees of 
latitude (from 8° north to 18° north) and is 1,200 miles long by 
from 30 to 300 miles broad. It has an average width of 150 
miles and a population of 18 per square mile—a density 
closely equal to that of the United States as a whole, includ¬ 
ing Alaska, or that of Minnesota or Kansas. Through the 
center of this band runs a backbone of mountains, generally 
less than 10,000 feet high, and for full half of the distance 
less than 6,000 feet, sometimes descending to moderate hills, 
at others expanding fan shaped to form extensive plateaus of 
3,000 feet or more. The coasts are rarely high, and along 
a considerable part of them is an area little above sealevel, 
marked by lagoons and floods. Generally this strip is nar¬ 
row, but along the Mosquito Coast for a distance of 300 miles 
it has a breadth of 100 to 150 miles. The western versant 
is more rapid than the eastern. 
Over this area, twice in its annual course, the sun occupies 
the zenith at noon. Except for the variations caused by the 
sun’s annual motion the whole east coast is reached by the 
northeast trades, and these in many places appear to cross 
the divide and descend on the western side. None of the 
mountains are so high as to have perpetual snow, and on 
only a few in the north is there a regular snowfall in winter. 
The division into temperature zones here is better marked 
than in Mexico. The lowest is the hot zone, along the coast 
to elevations of 300 to 400 feet. It is hot, humid, marshy, 
and malarial, and especially along the Atlantic side makes 
one of the hottest regions in the world, though its reputa¬ 
tion for especial unhealthfulness does not appear to be justi¬ 
fied. This zone is the home of the banana. The second 
extends up to 3,500 feet, is warm and vernal, only moderately 
well watered, and is the home of the coffee tree and pine¬ 
apple. The third is cool, rather dry, the home of the cereals 
and the fruits of the temperate zone, while the sugarcane 
and cotton are found in its lower altitudes and the upper of 
the preceding zone. These two zones form the most thickly 
populated part of Central America and are entirety salu- 
