Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/376

 nomical work incident to the survey of these grants and it was intended that I should visit both Darien and Chiriqui, but the contract term expired about the time of the completion of the work in Darien, which was taken up first, and it was deemed prudent for various reasons, the chief of them being the unhealthiness of the locality at that season of the year, about the middle of April, not to remain longer on the Isthmus. If it had been possible to work as expeditiously as in this country there would have been ample time to have completed the necessary astronomical work for both surveys, and without understanding men and methods peculiar to a tropical country I started out with this expectation, but soon found out that any efforts looking towards expediting any particular matter were not only useless but were detrimentally reactive upon the person putting forward such efforts. Thus it was nearly the first of March before I reached Darien, having sailed from New York a month previously. Passage was had from Panama to Darien in a steamer chartered for the purpose. Sailing across the Bay of Panama and entering the Tuyra River at Boca Chica, we ascended the river as far as the village Real de St. Marie. At this point the steamer was abandoned and further transportation was had in canoes.

Darien is a province of the State of Panama and its boundaries as given by Lieut. Sullivan in his comprehensive work on "Problem of Interoceanic Communication," are as follows: "The Atlantic coast line is included between Point San Blas and Cape Tiburon; that of the Pacific extends from the mouth of the Bayano to Point Ardita. The eastern boundary is determined by the main Cordillera in its sweep across the Isthmus from a position of close proximity to the Pacific, near Point Ardita, to a similar position near Tiburon, on the Atlantic. The valleys of the Mandinga and Mamoni-Bayano determine its western limit."

The Darien hills as seen from the Atlantic side present to the view an apparently solid ridge of mountains, although there are in reality many low passes which are concealed by projecting spurs.

The dividing ridge hugs close to the Atlantic, and the rivers, of which there are a great many on this side, plunge abruptly to the sea. On the Pacific side the rivers have a much longer distance to flow before reaching the sea, and the territory bordering on the ocean is low and swampy. The tidal limit of the Tuyra River is nearly fifty miles from its mouth, and on this river and