PANAMA.

THE ISTHMIAN COUNTRY.

Political Changes in Panama and Columbia - - The Recent Revolution in Panama A Comic Opera Coup d'état - The American Part in the Affair - United States Marines Are Landed - Nerve a More Potent Factor than Numbers The President's Denial of Official Complicity — Columbia's Tardy Appreciation of Her Interests The Ancient Graves of Chiriqui Curious Ornaments of a By-gone Race - The Mystic Frog of the Early Indians - The Mineral Resources of Panama The Famous Pearl Islands of Panama Bay Climatic Conditions on the Isthmus.

During recent years the ribbon of land that joins the continents of North and South America has loomed large in the public eye.

Since the days of Greece's glory no such small strip of soil as the Isthmus of Panama has gained equal distinction. It has been the scene of stirring adventure and the site of the wealthiest city in the world. It has been the subject of epoch-making diplomacy and a sphere for political disturbances. It is the seat of the greatest engineering enterprise in history; an enterprise which is destined to largely revolutionize the commerce of the earth and, more than

any other modern factor, to influence the fortunes of nations.

In the second decade of the sixteenth century Angel Saavedra mooted the idea of a canal through this narrow neck of inter-ocean territority. Since that time the thought could not be banished from the minds of men though a King of Spain decreed death to any who should voice it. For two hundred years and more plans and projects for the great waterway have been advanced. The first attempt to construct it ended in a cataclysmal failure. In these early years of the twentieth century the opening of a passage is at length assured and it will be available to the traffic of the world almost, perhaps exactly, four hundred years from the discovery of the Pacific.

THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.

The neck of land separating the two great oceans of the globe, which is called the Isthmus of Panama, forms the southern termination of the great American isthmus extending north to Mexico. This strip of land curving about four hundred and seventy miles from west to east has commonly been styled the Isthmus of Darien, but that name is more properly applied to the section of country between the Gulfs of Uraba and San Miguel. The Isthmus of Panama is traversed along its entire length by the

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Cordillera de Baudo, separated from the Andes by the Valley of the Atrato which marks the northern limit of South America. Erroneous impressions are apt to be created by the usual practice of studying geography with the aid of the ordinary flat maps, which have the effect of exaggerating the size of countries in high latitudes and diminishing the equatorial areas. One thousand miles in latitude 60 degrees occupies upon the ordinary map twice as much space as does one thousand miles along the equator. It is a revelation to many a well-informed person to learn that South America is very nearly as large as North America. For the study of the Panama Canal in its relations to the rest of the world the use of a globe, or a map on the polyconic projection is recommended. Another point worth noticing in this connection is that the most pronounced diversion from the general north and south trend of the Americas is found in the Isthmus of Panama, which takes a lateral direction east and west and throws the southern continent, so to speak, to the east of the northern, so that a line dropt due south from New York would pass through the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile.

In looking at a map of the western hemisphere we are accustomed to finding the Atlantic Ocean to the east or on the right hand. For this reason a sectional map of the Canal region is likely to be a little confusing at first glance. It will show the Pacific on the right and the Atlantic on the opposite

side of the page. This is due to the fact that the Isthmus makes a northerly loop in the portion containing the Canal Zone, and Panama is actually east of Colon, from which port the Canal will take a south-easterly direction to its Pacific terminus. A line from Buffalo continued south would bisect the Canal and leave Panama on the right and Colon on the left.

The writer finds an excuse for these explanations in the knowledge that many intelligent persons have been puzzled by the unfamiliar geographical conditions involved in an examination of the Canal project and related subjects.

POLITICAL CHANGES IN PANAMA AND COLUMBIA.

Having secured their independence from Spain, the provinces of Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama formed a republican federation. Subsequently, the two first-named seceded, and Panama with Colombia established the United Sovereign States of New Granada. Although each of the states combined in this political union exercised sovereign powers, the paramount authority in the territory became gradually centralized at Bogota. In 1861, against the wishes of the leading citizens of Panama, the United States of Colombia were organized with a new constitution conferring greater powers on the government at Bogota. Twenty-five years later, after

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a civil war in which many lives were lost, Colombia succeeded in establishing the republic which took her name. By this measure Panama lapsed to the condition of a mere department with a governor appointed by the Colombian president and vested with little independent authority. The Panamans, whilst forced to submit to this degradation, have always protested against it and have consistently declared their right to the position of a constitutional state. The government of Panama by the corrupt Colombian politicians had always been bad, and the people of the Isthmus had entertained the design of independence for years before America opened negotiations for the Canal and, indeed, had enjoyed it for three years following 1857.

THE RECENT REVOLUTION IN PANAMA.

Panama threw off the yoke of Colombia at an extremely opportune time as regards the plans of the United States for the construction of the Isthmian Canal. The coincidence of the event was the only basis for the utter nonsense written in this country upon the subject at the time. Even recently certain papers have published a silly story by a syndicate writer which purports to give the "inside" history of the rebellion. There is absolutely no ground for the accusation that the American authorities instigated the coup which gave independence to the Isth