established cities and thickly populated districts with large sections. of undeveloped but resourceful land which make it an interesting field of study and commercial effort. Located in the heart of Central America, it has an area of nearly 50,000 square miles equal to that of New York state. Its population of 600,000 represents only a small part of what it could support if its natural wealth were made fully productive. Despite the handicap of civil strife, it conducted in 1909 a foreign commerce valued at $7,100,000. It bought from the United States products valued at $1,355,000 and sold to that country exports worth $1,004,000, making a total trade

with the United States of approximately $2,360,000. Its shipments to the outer world are largely made up of rubber, bananas, hides, mahogany, cacao, sugar and cattle. With a coast-line of 300 miles

on the Caribbean and 200 miles on the Pacific Ocean, its railways are restricted to the Pacific side and have a total length of 171 miles. It is probable that in the near future a road will be constructed from the Caribbean to Lake Nicaragua. To reach its capital, Managua, it is necessary to approach the country by the Pacific coast and take the railroad at Corinto, its principal western port. Managua, in prosperous times, has a population of 40,000. Leon is the largest city with 60,000 while Granada has 20,000. The principal towns on the Caribbean side are Graytown, and Bluefields; these last two places have direct steamer connection with New Orleans.

ANAMA should not be thought of merely as the home of the Panama Canal. Covering an area nearly equal to that of the State of Maine, or 32,380 square miles, and having a population of 361,000, it is a country of agricultural wealth and industrial possibilities. It is now exporting in increasing quantities bananas, cacao, indigo, tobacco, sugar, rubber, vegetable ivory, turtle shells, pearls and mahogany. It has large sections suited to cattle growing and it only needs the construction of railways and good roads to make its interior very productive. The only railroads at the present time are the ones across the Isthmus between Colon and Panama, 48 miles in length, and a banana line in the territory adjacent to Bocas del Toro, which reaches some 29 miles. There will soon be begun the building of an important trunk line westward from Panama to David, a distance of 274 miles. This road will cost about $5,000,000 and form, eventually, a part of the main Pan American system. The foreign commerce in 1909 exceeded $10,000,000. It bought from the United States products valued at nearly $5,000,000 and sold to it exports worth $1,265,000, or a total trade exchange with that country of $6,265,000. Panama, its capital and principal port on the Pacific, has now a population of nearly

40,000, and Colon, the Atlantic entrance to the Canal, about 15,000. The Isthmus can be easily reached from New York or New Orleans by a number of good steamship lines and every traveler who makes the trip comes back feeling that he has been rewarded for his effort and time not only in seeing the way the work is going forward upon the canal, but in having a chance to become acquainted with the country itself.

ARAGUAY sounds like a far away land and it is back in the southern interior of South America but it can be easily approached either by steamers up the great Parana and Paraguay Rivers from Montevideo in Uruguay, or Buenos Aires in Argentina, or on the other hand, by rail over land through Argentina, upon the approaching completion of a new line. In the near future. it will be connected by rail with the southern provinces of Brazil.

Few countries of South America offer greater opportunities for agricultural development. While small in comparison with its big neighbors Argentina and Brazil, it covers an area of 196,000 square miles within which could be placed both California and Maine. Its population of 715,000 is only a small measure of what it could support. Its capital, Asuncion, has about 52,000 inhabitants and

is worthy of a visit from the traveler to South America. Other important towns are Villa Rica and Concepcion. Paraguay bought and sold, last year, with the rest of the world, a foreign trade valued at nearly $9,000,000. The share with the United States was small, not exceeding $225,000, made up almost entirely of imports from the United States. It has at the present time only 155 miles of railroad in operation but extensions are under way or planned. Its chief channel of communication with the outer world is the Parana River already mentioned.

P

ERU has a coast line on the Pacific Ocean which equals the distance from Maine south to Georgia and it covers an area of nearly 680,000 square miles, the combined areas of Texas, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Its population is estimated at 4,500,000 and yet this is only 6.6 per square mile. Its climate along the Pacific shore is much like that of southern California, while in the interior or on the plateaux it is cool the year round. It also possesses a vast territory which is tributary to the Amazon River, and its Atlantic port, Iquitos, only 500 miles from the Pacific Ocean, has an anomalous location on the Amazon, 2,000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The principal Pacific harbor is Callao while a short distance away is the beautiful capital, Lima, having a population of 140,000. This city is one of the historic capitals of the western hemisphere and is proud of a university which was 100 years old before John Harvard established the famous college that now carries his name. A visit to Peru, approached easily from Panama on the north or from Chile on the south, should include a trip up the famous Oroya railroad which climbs from Callao 140 miles up into the heart of the Andes, to an altitude of 15,680 feet, the highest point reached by any railroad in the world, excepting the new Antofogasta line from Chile into Bolivia. The total railway mileage is approximately 1500 miles with new