WIND

A very light breeze blows most of the time, but it is not strong enough to blow light papers off a table. During the writer's 158 days in the country he did not often experience a breeze strong enough to blow heavy paper off a table. However, winds of 20 miles per hour do occur, and if they come when the ground is wet they do much damage to the banana plants. Hurricanes are unknown.

It seems that the trade wind belt does not reach as far south as Costa Rica. The northern coast of Colombia is generally thought to be in the trade wind belt for part of the year, but all of Costa Rica is south of the northernmost part of Colombia.

TEMPERATURE

Although the coastal plain region is humid, the heat is no more oppressive than in the temperate regions of the United States during the months of July and August. The writer never found it necessary to take mid-day siestas. In houses built for the tropics the heat at night is rarely uncomfortable. One might spend the summer months in Limon in greater comfort than in St. Louis, Missouri, from the point of view of the heat. The temperature rarely goes above 92 degrees, but it goes as high as 85 degrees almost every day.1

Differences in climate between lowlands and highlands are very striking. Cartago, 55 miles west of Limon in a direct line, has a climate of perpetual spring. The maximum temperature recorded by the Calverts in the 10 months from July 1 to May 5 was 79 and the minimum 51. The daily range is rarely more than 10 degrees and the average daily maximum is a little above 70°. The rainfall at Cartago is about 60 inches and there is a dry season extending from December to May, though the season is not as well marked as on the Pacific slope. The elevation of Cartago is 4760 feet at the railway station.

The town of Turrialba, altitude 2037 feet, 42 miles west of Limon, impressed the writer as having a climate much more like that of Cartago than Limon, and the vegetation bears out this conclusion. Wet and dry seasons alternate, but are not pronounced.

Passengers on the railroad from Limon to Cartago always go equipped to change to heavier clothing. The temperature at Limon at eleven o'clock in the morning, the time the train leaves, is likely to be between 87 and 90 degrees nearly every day of the year, while the temperature at Cartago at three o'clock in the afternoon, when the train arrives, is likely to be between 60 and 70 degrees. However, one of Cartago's cold rainy days may greet the Limon passenger with temperatures well below 60 degrees.

INHABITANTS

The inhabited part of eastern Costa Rica is almost entirely confined to strips a mile or two wide along the railroad tracks or tram lines. There is no dependable source for statistics on the composition of the population, and percentages given in this

4 The writer kept no accurate temperature records and was unable to find any for the eastern lowlands. The figures given are estimates based on the writer's long experience in outdoor work in climates where accurate records are kept.

4a Calvert, A. M. and P. P., A year of Costa Rican natural history, p. 511, 1917.

paper are based on the writer's observations. About five per cent of the people are high class natives and foreigners, and fully half of the foreigners are from the United States. This is due to the activities of the United Fruit Company, which employs Americans for the most part. Men from the United States hold most of the important positions on the farms and in the towns. Among the foreigners the Chinese rank second, Germans third, and English fourth.

In going to a Spanish-American country the writer had expected to use an interpreter until he learned to speak Spanish, but he soon found that many of the inhabitants do not speak Spanish and that English is spoken everywhere.

Fully 90 per cent of the inhabitants are Jamaican negroes, whose English is a quality of sing-song, often difficult to understand. As it came largely from Jamaica, it is cockney in nature, but it has the added complication brought in by superimposing poor Spanish on cockney English. The negro in Costa Rica leaves out both h and r where they belong and puts them in where they do not belong. 'Idea' becomes 'hidar'. Some of the slang of the United States is in common use, and the conversational oaths that make up no inconsiderable part of the talk of Americans of some groups form a considerable part of the total vocabulary. The vocabularies are exceedingly limited, however, and the objectionable language is most conspicuous when the user is under the influence of drink.

About five per cent of the inhabitants are low class Central American Spaniards, who work with the negroes. Of this group those from Costa Rica are peaceable, while the Nicaraguans and Hondurans are quarrelsome, especially when they are drunk. The Costa Ricans are fairer of skin than the people from the other countries of South and Central America and are of less mixed breeds. In all of Costa Rica there has been little interbreeding between the whites and the Indians.

A few Indians inhabit some of the more remote regions in the upper drainage country of the Chirripo, the Sixola, and the Estrella, and a very few live near the railways. The writer had been in Costa Rica three months before he saw an Indian and he knows of few that inhabit the lowland area. Of the Indian inhabitants only a small number have learned to do any kind of labor. Many are hunters and still make use of the bow and arrow. For the most part, they dress in the simplest ready-made clothing, trousers and shirt sufficing for the men and skirt and waist for the women. Most of them speak Spanish sufficiently well to make themselves understood.

The negroes, in the main, are peaceable. The men rarely quarrel among themselves and usually treat the white 'boss' with profound respect. The older women seem to enjoy an occasional quarrel and one may often hear them reciting each other's ancestry and other shortcomings from opposite sides of the street.

There is no color line among the lower classes, but the negroes are treated much more harshly by the upper-class whites than are the poor whites. It is difficult for the negroes to get fair treatment in the local courts, for the negro's word is worth nothing if a white man testifies against him.

The negroes are fairly clean in their habits. Their work clothes are washed occasionally and when they are 'dressed up' they are clean and presentable. They bathe with considerable regularity. On Sundays the small streams are the rendez