uniformity of temperature. From April 13 to August 29 the sun at noon is north of the zenith, on June 21 being only 75 deg. 41 min. above the northern horizon, while on December 21 it is 57 deg. 24 min. above the southern horizon. There is thus an extreme variation of 46 deg. 55 min. Generally speaking, 55 per cent. of the time the wind at Colon is blowing from northerly quarters: that is, from some point between northeast and northwest; 35 per cent. of the time it is from the corresponding southerly quarters; nine per cent. of the time it is from easterly or westerly quarters; and one per cent. of the time there is a dead calm. These percentages vary with the seasons, of which there are twothe dry season, comprising January, February, March, and April, and the wet season, including all the rest of the year. During the dry season more than 90 per cent. of the wind is from between north and northeast, and during the rainy season more than 50 per cent. is from southerly quarters. As these winds blow from the sea upon the land, the temperature of the water is an important factor in climatic problems. The temperature of the Caribbean has a yearly average of 79.3 deg., Fahrenheit, ranging from 75.8 in February to 81.9 in September. The temperature of the Pacific, or of the Bay of Panama, has a yearly average of only 76.1, ranging from 67.8 in February to 80.0 in October. Thus the Pacific is 3.2 degrees cooler than the Caribbean, and has just twice as great a range of variation as the latter. At this point I may perhaps appropriately mention the tides, though they have probably no bearing upon the climate. At Colon the total range from low to high water is from 7.44 to 24.84 inches, the average being 17.208 inches. At Panama the range is from 16.40 to 20.93 feet, the average being 18.75 feet, or more than thirteen times as great in the Pacific as in the Caribbean.

The uniformity of the climate of Panama is most notable, when we observe the temperature of the air and its slight variations. At Panama the hottest time of the day is from two to four o'clock p. m., when the average temperature

ranges from 81.6, Fahrenheit, in November, to 86.1 in March. The coolest hour is from six to seven o'clock a. m., when the average temperature ranges from 74.0 in January to 76.6 in June. The general average of highest temperature is 84.0, and of lowest, 75.1. The average daily temperature ranges from 77.9 in November to 81.1 in April, the yearly average being 79.6. Thus the variation of monthly averages during the year is at most only 3.2 degrees. I know of no other place where it is so slight, and where, therefore, the temperature is so uniform. At Barbados there is a variation in monthly averages of 3.5 degrees; at San Juan, Porto Rico, of 5.8; at Kingston, Jamaica-that land of comfort and of beauty-of 6.5; at Havana, Cuba, of 12.1; at New Orleans, of 29.1; and at Washington, D. C., of 43.7. The first four of the places named have a yearly average from a fraction of a degree to 4.1 degrees cooler than Panama. But Kingston, San Juan, and Havana all have hotter weather as well as cooler weather than Panama, and on the whole the temperature of the Isthmus is more agreeable than theirs. It is an impressive fact that there is no record of the thermometer's ever having risen as high as 100 deg., Fahrenheit, at Panama. It has been observed at 101 at Havana and at San Juan, and at 104 in Washington.

So much for the dry bulb thermometer. I am sorry to say that the record concerning humidity is less favourable at Panama than elsewhere. I do not think the Isthmians ever suffer as much from excessive humidity as we do at times in New York, in August, but they suffer from it for a much longer time. Even in the dry season, from January to April, there is an average humidity of about 80 degrees, and in the rainy season this rises to about 87.7. Probably 85 deg. would be a fair average for the year. That is a record which speaks for itself. I shall not attempt to defend it or to extenuate it. I should add, however, in passing, that up at Empire and other places on the highlands, at an elevation of only from 100 to 500 feet, the humidity is much less than at Panama, while the range of variation of temperature is

greater, the maximum of heat being higher and the minimum lower than on the coast. The wind at Colon blows almost incessantly, at an average velocity of from five to eight miles an hour, seldom rising above twenty miles, save in the destructive "northers."

The rainfall on the Isthmus is heavy, but varies much according to place. At Colon it is heaviest, averaging about 140 inches a year. At Matachin and Empire, on the "divide," it is from 90 to 95 inches. In the city of Panama it is not more than 60 inches. The average number of rainy days in a year is 246 at Bohio, 196 at Colon, and 141 at Panama. At Bohio there is not nearly as much contrast between the wet and dry seasons as at Panama, the four dry months at Bohio having an average of twelve rainy days each, while at Panama they have less than five each. At Panama the rainy season is by no means a time of incessant downpour. When it does rain, it rains hard, as hard as we ever see it in the north in the most torrential summer thunderstorms and "cloudbursts." But at least one day in three is fine, and generally one day in two. The rainiest month is October, in which there is an average of twenty rainy days and eleven fine ones. In November the average is eighteen rainy, in August and September seventeen each, in July fifteen, in June thirteen, in May twelve, and in December eleven rainy days. In the dry season the average number of rainy days is seven in April, six in January, four in March, and one in February.

It is not my purpose, however, to attempt a technical scientific treatise upon climatic or other conditions in the Isthmian Republic, but to give the general impression which the country makes upon the observant layman who visits it, not in quest of special facts to bolster up some longcherished prejudice, but with an open mind in quest of truth. To such, Panama must seem a land where tropical conditions present their best phases, and where their evil phases are minimised. It is a land which is not only tolerable but even comfortable and enjoyable to those who have been accus

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tomed to the capricious, uncertain, and intemperate regions which we contradictorily call temperate, and it is one whose political constitution, whose geographical position, and whose topography, geology, meteorology, and all other natural conditions, not only permit but favour and facilitate the development of a high civilisation and great prosperity for a numerous population of the Caucasian race.

CHAPTER XIII

AN ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY EPISODE

THE Republic of Panama was scarcely a year old when it was first called upon to determine the fundamental question whether it should have a stable and constitutional civil government, or should, after the fashion of some neighbouring states, be subject to military revolutions. At the beginning of the Republic's life the former choice was made. Instead of forming a military government, a government of civilians was organised. For President was chosen not a general of the army, but the leading physician of Panama; for First Designate the foremost lawyer and jurist; and so on all through the Cabinet. It was, in a measure, a coalition government, comprising men of all parties. But in time, as already related, party antagonisms were developed, both in and out of the government. The Liberals believed themselves to be in the majority in the country at large, but were in the minority in the government. Agitation therefore arose, in public prints and speeches and in addresses to the President, for a reorganisation of the government, and especially for the removal from the Cabinet of Tomas Arias, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and War, and of Nicolas Victoria, the Minister of Public Instruction and Justice. At last, failing to effect their end by other means, the opposition leaderslargely the friends and partisans of Belisario Porras, of whom I shall speak more at length, in another chaptersought and secured the coöperation of Esteban Huertas, the commander-in-chief of the army. Now, General Huertas was the idol of the army. He was highly esteemed by the general public for his very important services in the revolution of November 3, 1903. He was, moreover, a man of decided ability, and of peculiarly attractive and engaging