The Republic of Honduras is composed of sixteen departments, or provinces, and one territorial district. The territory of Mosquitia is situated in the extreme northeastern section of the country and is the second largest political division in the republic, comprising about one-fifth of the entire landed surface and with a population of four thousand, mostly a mixed race of negroes and Indians. This is an average of about one person for every two square miles. The country is covered with a dense forest of tropical verdure, through which the waters of several rivers course. Along the rivers the lands have been partially explored but much of the interior is still unknown. The Bay Islands department comprises a group of five low islands lying at a distance of from twenty-five to fifty miles from the northern shore. The names of the islands are Utila, Roatan, Elena, Barbareta and Bonaca, and they contain a total population of about five thousand whites, negroes and Indians. The English language is quite commonly used on those islands for they were long under the sovereignty of England.

The names of the different departments, together with the capital city, its population and elevation, according to the best and most recent statistics available, are as follows:—

The uneven character of the configuration of the earth’s surface and the effect of the trade winds gives the Central American republics a great variety of climate. The so-called “seasons,” the wet and dry, do not always express the real conditions, for local conditions influence the temperature and amount of rainfall. There is a wide difference, for instance, between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes. On the Atlantic coast there is literally no dry season. The central plateaus have a climate of their own subject neither to excessive droughts or heavy rains. When you consider that the highest temperature inland rarely exceeds 90° F. and does not go below 50° F. it will be seen that the land is quite inhabitable, for there are no great extremes. The “wet” season from May to November is called invierno, or winter, and the “dry” season from November to May is termed verano, or summer.

In order to set forth clearly the temperature I herewith give a table of the thermometer readings at Tegucigalpa for an entire year as given in a handbook compiled by Mr. A. K. Moe, formerly United States Consul at that city, and issued by the International Bureau of the American Republics, to which same book I am indebted for some other valuable information herein contained:—