The State of Costa Rica.
Costa Rica, the southernmost Republic of Central America, is advantageously situated within the North tropical zone, adjoining Colombia, the most northern state of South America. It is between the two great oceans, having also the prospect of one inter-oceanic ship-canal at one extremity and another ship-canal near the other.
Costa Rica is between 8° and 11° 16′ N. latitude and 81° 35′ and 85° 40′ W. longitude from Greenwich. Its area is between 54,070 and 59,570 sq. kilometers, the difference arising from the boundary line unsettled with Colombia. We follow here Colonel George Earl Church’s paper in the London Geographical Journal of July, 1897, which gives in a condensed form all important results of extensive explorations by Professor H. Pittier as well as well-written abstracts of important publications of the “Instituto fisico geografico Nacional” and of the “Museo Nacional” of Costa Rica.
The mountains of Costa Rica are not a continuous Cordillera, although in general they extend from the frontier ofColombia to within a few miles of Brito. The entire country may properly be divided into two distinctive groups by a natural line running between the mouths of the Reventazon and Rio Grande de Pirris; groups which can be called “volcanic mountains” or “mountains of the northwest,” and “Talamanca mountains” or “mountains of the southeast.” It is clear that the Caribbean Sea once joined the Pacific Ocean through this valley of the river Reventazon in which the Costa Rica Railway now climbs to reach Cartago. In weighing existing data there seems to be no room for doubt that the highlands of Costa Rica once formed part of a vast archipelago extending from Panama to Tehuantepec. The lowest inter-oceanic depressions between the Arctic Ocean and the Straits of Magellan are the divide between the two oceans at Panama which is 286 feet above the sea-level, and the narrow strip of land separating Lake Nicaragua from the Pacific, which has only about 150 feet elevation.
The “volcanic mountains” or “the mountains of the northwest” can again be divided into two sections. The first comprises the part situated between the Rio Reventazon and a depression which connects San Ramon with the water-shed of San Carlos, including the groups of the volcanoes Turialba (11,000 feet), Irazú (11,200 feet), Barba (9335 feet) and Poas (8675 feet). The second section comprises the part which extends from the Barranca River to the Lake of Nicaragua with the groups of Tilaran, Miravalles, La Vieja and Orosi.
The first section may be called “Cordillera Central” or “Cordillera del Irazú” and the second “Cordillera del Miravalles.” The three masses which form the volcanic Cordillera of Irazú are separated by two depressions: first by that of La Palma, 1500 meters above the sea, between Irazú and Barba, and second by that of Desengaño, 1800 meters above the sea, between Barba and Poas.
The basis of the two western masses seems to be formed of basaltic rocks, while the trachytes dominate in the eastern mass. Irazú and Turialba, which is part of the same mass, seem to have ejected lavas in a compact state. The height of volcanoes diminishes towards the west.
The three orographic groups which dominate thenorthern central plateau do not show the regular conical form which usually characterizes a volcano. The general line of the southern slopes ascends in an imperceptible manner towards the summit, notwithstanding that they are composed of a succession of terrace plains. On the Irazú, for instance, eight such terraces are observable from Cartago to the summit. The northern declivity is more precipitous, being over 60° on the Irazú.
The peak of the Irazú is a point from which go various spurs and secondary mountains in opposite directions, one to the west and one to the east, the latter terminating in a crater where the Parismina River takes its origin. The western mountains trend first in a westerly direction to the Cerro Pelon, where they divide, one part descending south to the pass of Ochomogo, 1540 meters above sea-level; the other, after taking a northwesterly direction, terminating in the plain of La Palma, which is a part of the water-shed of the two oceans. On the south various mountains follow the rivers Pirris and Turialba. The Irazú has various craters, formed successively, each one contributing to the gradual rising of the mass.
The Irazú, which had eruptions in 1723, 1726, 1821 and 1847, has now an altitude of 3414 m. (11,200 feet), and from its summit both oceans are visible, and also the great valleys of San Juan and of Lake Nicaragua, as well as the mountains of Pico Blanco, Chirripo, Buena Vista and Las Vueltas. Turialba had a famous eruption of sand and ashes which began on the 17th of August, 1864, and lasted to March, 1865. Its heaviest ejected matter fell to the west, and Seebach classifies it as andesite. Another eruption, occurring on February 6, 1866, was accompanied by heavy earthquakes and sent its ashes as far as Puntarenas.
The Cordillera del Miravalles commences with the volcano Orosi, situated near the southwest extremity of Lake Nicaragua. In its southeast trend it recedes more and more from the lake and the San Juan River. It is an irregular, broad and volcano-dotted chain, about sixty geographical miles long, breaking down gradually on the northwest from Orosi to the Sapoa River, one of the southern boundaries ofNicaragua. In this short distance are found the Cerro de la Vieja (6508 feet), the Montemuerto (8000 feet), the beautiful volcano Tenorio (6700 feet), the volcanoes Miravalles (4665 feet), the Rincon (4498 feet), and the Orosi (5195 feet).
These mountains, as far as they have been examined, are found to be of eruptive origin, basalts and trachytes predominating, but extensive sedimentary rock formations are also found upon their slopes, as well as vast deposits of boulders, clay, earth and volcanic material.
The peninsula of Nicoya, forming a part of Guanacaste, is partly an elevated plain and partly consists of hills and mountain ridges seldom attaining a greater elevation than 1500 feet. It is also composed of eruptive rocks and sedimentary formations, the latter being especially visible in the valley of Tempisque.
Between the northern volcanic section and the more regular Talamanca range is the notable “Ochomogo” Pass, about twenty miles broad, and a little more than 5000 feet above the sea-level at the water parting.
To the eastward through this gap, and in a broad, deeply eroded valley, runs the tumultuous Reventazon River, and to the westward the Rio Grande de Pirris. On the south of this depression the Chirripo Grande mountain mass sends off east and west two immense flanking ranges. A part of the western range, lying between San Marcos and Santa Maria, for a length of about six miles, is known as the Dota ridge, to which former explorers gave great importance.
This lofty, transverse and precipitous mountain system almost forbids communication between the northern and southern halves of the Republic, and, as Colonel Church says, must at all times have had a marked influence on the movement of races in this part of Central America. Both the northern and Talamanca sections present mountains in masses instead of sierrated like many Andean chains of North America. Those of the Talamanca section are Rovalo (7050 feet), Pico Blanco (9650 feet). Chirripo Grande (11,850 feet) and Buena Vista (10,820 feet). There are no signs of recent volcanic activity in the Talamanca range. The Talamanca mountains have narrow crests and are very precipitouson the Atlantic side, with evidences of extensive denudations and erosions caused by the ceaseless rain-laden trade-winds.
Professor William M. Gabb, in his geological sketch of Talamanca, observes that the geological structure of the entire region is very simple. The greatest expanse is occupied by recent sedimentary rocks raised and nearly entirely metamorphosed by the action of volcanic masses.
At several points along the Atlantic coast, there are found masses of rocks of still later date. Professor Gabb maintains that the nucleus of the great Cordillera of the interior is formed by granites and syenites, which, like the sediment that covers them, are broken through here and there by dikes of volcanic origin identical with the eruptive material found on a greater scale in the northern part of Costa Rica. The syenites are intrusive and have their culminating point and greatest development in the Pico Blanco or Kamuk, a mountain of great altitude, unusual ruggedness and scarred with deep and precipitous cañons. All these dikes are of more modern formation and are porphyritic. Professor Gabb also notes a thick deposit of conglomerates and sandstones, schists and limestones, the schists being the most abundant; although the conglomerates, found all over the region, indicate the previous existence of an older sedimentary formation.
The pebbles which form the conglomerates are composed of metamorphic clay, having a character distinct from all the other rocks found in the country. The cement is also clay or sand. The absence of crystalline rocks in the conglomerates is irrefutable proof that, when these were deposited, the syenites and granites had not yet appeared from the interior of the earth. The limestone and sandstone represent a less developed geographical horizon of the sedimentary group, the latter appearing occasionally in layers, interstratified with conglomerates or more recent schists. In no place in Talamanca have fossils been found in these sandstones, although the same rocks are very fossiliferous near Zapote on the River Reventazon.
In regard to fossils, Professor Gabb saw at Las Lomas Station, about seven hundred feet above the sea, in the BonillaCliffs cutting, shark’s teeth, compact masses of sea shells, fish, etc., and at an elevation of 2500 feet large deposits of compact shell limestone.
The schists have a fine, leaf-like texture, and are easily decomposed and reduced to a black mud, if they have not been metamorphosed. In this rock fossils have been found which belong to a Miocene age.
Along the Talamanca coast calcareous deposits are found in horizontal layers, and are probably elevated coral reefs, a rock which Professor Gabb calls “antillite,” and which is developed in the entire Caribbean region. It belongs to the post-Pliocene formation, the last of the Tertiary series.
In the interior valleys a thick deposit of pebbles and clays of recent origin is observed. The limit between the syenites of the high mountains and the metamorphosed Miocene formation is found in proximity to the Depuk River. In the slopes of the hills the schists are usually decomposed and covered with red clay, a sub-soil above which is found a small cap of fertile vegetable mold. In the valley of Tsuku the schists are profoundly altered and transformed in a magnesic or semi-talcous rock. The schists are more silicified in coming near to the limits of the syenites.
Higher up, the granitic rocks extend in the direction of the Pico Blanco without interruption. The Pico Blanco itself is of granite. Three hundred feet below the summit porphyry is observed, while the summit itself shows a greenish-brown trachyte with black spots.
In regard to the Pacific side of this Talamanca section, Professor H. Pittier says, “The southern coast Cordillera, as a whole, is formed of a nucleus of basaltic or syenitic rocks, above which are found successively limestone in very deep banks and sometimes fossiliferous: then argillaceous and marly schists; again, sandstone and conglomerates, the latter forming generally the crests of the hills and giving way very easily to atmospheric action, which produces its decomposition and is the cause of sterile lands characterized by savannas and the absence of forests on the upper parts of the mountains, as well as in certain lower and denuded parts.The conglomerates are made up of heterogeneous elements whose resistance to erosion is variable. Some disintegrate as soon as they are exposed to erosion, while others remain unaltered for a long time. For this reason the savannas are in many places covered with stones of varied sizes.”
The lower valley of the Pirris presents a cap of impervious red clay, and, as the waters do not readily drain off they become stagnant and make an unhealthy district.
Dr. Frantzius, referring to the same region, speaks of diorites and syenites, also of calcareous deposits of the Miocene age covered with sandstone formations containing useful lignites. In his opinion the mountain of Dota is formed almost entirely of dioritic rocks with some syenitic nucleus. The same scientist says further that the high plains of Caños Gordas are formed of conglomerates of ashes ejected by the volcano of Chiriqui and brought there by the trade-winds which prevail in Central America.
The Pacific slope, which comes boldly to the water’s edge, is margined almost throughout by headlands and lofty hills, and has fewer evidences of extensive denudations and erosions than the Atlantic coast.
There is also a notable difference between the outlines of the two coasts. The eastern is regular and slightly concave to the southwest, while the western is indented with large and small bays and gulfs.
The most northern of these bays is the Salinas, belonging partly to Nicaragua and partly to Costa Rica. It is a spacious deep-water harbor, overlooked by the volcanic peak of Orosi. It is separated from the adjoining bay, the Santa Elena, by Sacate Point.
Continuing south, we come, south of Cacique Point, to Port Culebra, which is a mile wide, with a depth of eighteen fathoms. At the outlet of this harbor lies Cocos Bay, capacious enough for a thousand ships to anchor in the roadstead. The coast line south of Cocos Bay, bordered by numerous and lofty hills and cut into gorges by small impetuous water courses, presents no harbor as far as Cape Blanco, which is at the western entrance of the extensive Gulf of Nicoya. The gulf extends fifty miles to the northwest and isa magnificent sheet of water, surrounded by green scenery, rivaling, if not surpassing, that of the Bay of Naples, the Bosphorus, or the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. Some twenty islands, large and small, nearly all bold, rocky and covered with vegetation, contribute to its beauty, while many small rivers, draining the slopes of the Miravalles and Tilaran sierras and the mountains of the peninsula of Nicoya, flow into it and diversify the scenery. The principal river, the Tempisque, enters at the head of the gulf, and with numerous small branches irrigates much of the province of Guanacaste.
All of the streams have bars at their mouths, composed generally of mud and broken shells, and but few of them are navigable even for a short distance inland, and then by very small craft. The whole eastern part of the peninsula of Nicoya is broken into hills and low mountains, wild and rarely cultivated, although there are many beautiful and fertile valleys. The west side of the gulf is full of reefs, rocks, violent currents, eddies that run from one to three and a half miles an hour, and is subject to violent squalls coming from the northwestern sierras. The eastern shore is less beset by obstructions, and small craft go along it with ease, and at high tide penetrate a few of its many rivers. It rises rapidly a short distance inland, but is at times bordered by mangrove swamps.
Near the mouth of the river Aranjuez, on a sand spit three miles long, stands Puntarenas, the only port of entry of Costa Rica on the Pacific coast, and which had, from 1814 until recently, nearly the entire foreign trade of the country. Ocean vessels anchor from one to two miles off in the roadstead. There is an iron pier for loading and discharging.
From Puntarenas southward to the unnavigable Barranca River there is a broad beach lying at the foot of the high escarpment of Caldera.
The Rio Grande de Tarcoles, which enters the gulf south of the Barranca, has a dangerous bar, but once inside it may be navigated a few miles. Its upper waters irrigate the table-land of San José, Alajuela and Heredia. In the neighborhood of these towns is garnered nearly the entire coffee crop of Costa Rica. The coast line south is rocky and precipitousuntil near Punta Mala, or Judas, at the southeastern mouth of the gulf, and is low and surrounded by reefs and rocks.
From Point Judas, low and covered with mangrove swamps, the coast trends southeast in a long angular curve for about one hundred marine miles to Point Llorena. It is dominated by lofty hills, cut through at intervals by short impetuous streams and a few estuaries. The only safe and excellent anchorage in this one hundred miles is Uvita Bay, behind a rocky reef. From the precipitous headline, called Punta Llorena, to Burica Point, the southern limit of Costa Rica, the coast is abrupt, soon rising into ridges and peaks from 300 to 700 meters high (985 to 2300 feet). These give birth to a few short turbulent streams. About half way between these two points the great Golfo Dulce, having a main width of six miles, penetrates inland northwest about twenty-eight miles. It has an average depth of one hundred fathoms.
Cape Matapalo, which marks its western entrance, is deep and forest-covered, but Banco Point, opposite to it, is low. At the head of the gulf is found the little Bay of Rincon. From here to the Esquinas River, at the northeast angle of the gulf, the shore is hilly, and thence to the harbor of Golfito, which is surrounded by high hills, the country rises rapidly inland, but between Golfito and the entrance to the gulf it is lower and less broken, and thence to Platanal Point and Burica Point, the coast is bold, the country descending gradually from the northeast.
From Point Llorena to Point Burica the coast is wild and almost uninhabited. The coasts of Golfo Dulce have but a few hundred half-breeds as their sole occupants.
There are but two rivers in the long coast line from the Gulf of Nicoya to the Golfo Dulce, the Rio Grande de Pirris, and the Rio Grande de Terraba, the head waters of the former flowing through deep canyons with steep sides, which are almost bare of vegetation until the region of Guaitil is reached, where dense forests are encountered. The valley of the Rio Grande de Terraba is one of the most beautiful, extensive and fertile of Costa Rica, but is occupied by only a few families. Formerly it was the home of a large indigenous population.
In the angle made by the River Buena Vista and Chirripo there is a vast ancient cemetery, the graves of which contain many ornaments of gold, principally eagles. An ancient road runs by near this place.
Turning to the hydrographic basin of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, the northeastern slope of the Miravalles range is found to send off several small streams to the lake.
Between Cuajiniquil, two and one-fourth miles east of Rio Sapoa, and Tortuga, six miles further east, are the little streams, Lapita, El Cangrejo, Puente de Piedra, La Vivora, Guabo, Genizaro and Tortuga, the latter the greatest in volume, being about one hundred and sixty feet wide at its mouth and navigable. In the further distance of seventeen miles going east, we cross the rivers Zavalos, Cañitas, Quesera, Mena, Mico, Sapotillo, Quijada, Quijadita, Santa Barbara, Sardinia, Barreal, Cañas, Perrito and, finally, Las Haciendas which is navigable by small boats. From here to San Carlos, at the outlet of Lake Nicaragua, the distance is sixty-four kilometers, and the principal rivers which cross this tract are El Pizote, Papalusco, Guacolito, Zapote, Caño Negro and Rio Frio. The Rio Frio is of considerable magnitude, and with its many branches drains a large area of the territory lying on the slopes of the volcanoes of Miravalles and Tenorio. It pours much sedimentary matter into Lake Nicaragua, and has thrown an extensive mudbank across the lake entrance to the River San Juan.
For three or four miles above the mouth of the River Frio the lands are low and swampy. Several of its branches can be reached and navigated by canoe, and even a small river steamer can ascend a few miles from the lake.
The San Carlos River joins the San Juan sixty-five miles from Lake Nicaragua. The depth of its mouth, which is obstructed by a sand-bar, varies from eight to twenty feet, according to the season.
The San Carlos has numerous affluents which at times have a volume of water altogether disproportionate to their lengths. The distance up to the first rapid of the San Carlos River, which is at El Muelle de San Rafael where there are from four to six feet of water is roughly fixed at sixty-twomiles by the course of the river. Small steamers could reach this point, although with difficulty on account of many snags. The floods sometimes rise to their full height in twenty-four hours and carry with them a great number of trees and much sand, from which floating islands are formed.
Should the plans of Engineer Menocal for the Nicaragua Canal be realized, the waters of the upper San Juan and the lower San Carlos would be impounded and form an arm of Lake Nicaragua, which would flood a large area in Costa Rica. The interval between the San Carlos and the River Frio is an extensive forest, covering an undulating plain with occasional low hills and watered by numerous little streams. This territory is fertile and beautiful.
The next great river, the Sarapiqui, reaches the San Juan about twenty miles east of San Carlos. It is 600 feet wide at its mouth, and has numerous affluents from the sides of the volcanoes Poas, Barba and Irazú, the principal ones being the Toro Amarilla and Sardinal from the west, and the River Sucio from the east. The river is navigable for large canoes up to its confluence with the Puerto Viejo. Its banks as high up as to the River Sucio are low. The lands are extremely fertile. El Muelle Nuevo is the head of navigation, forty-five miles from the River San Juan and sixty-six miles by the road across the mountains from San José.
From the Sarapiqui River to the River Colorado, a branch or bayou of the San Juan, the banks of the latter in Costa Rica are but slightly elevated. The lands are low and swampy, but occasionally a hill is found from fifteen to eighteen feet high.
Below the Machuca Rapids the San Juan River is broad and deep as far as the junction with its Colorado outlet, about seventeen miles from the sea. Here it turns about nine-tenths of its volume of water into the Colorado. It is navigable for river steamers at all seasons, but has a dangerous bar at its mouth where the sea breaks heavily, and on which there are only from eight to nine feet of water.
From the Colorado Junction to Greytown, some twenty miles distant, the San Juan averages about three hundredfeet in width for sixteen miles and 100 feet for the remaining four, with a depth at high water of from six to eight feet.
The Colorado has several islands in its course, but has excellent anchorage at its mouth. This river forms several lagoons which communicate with each other by caños or bayous perfectly navigable, the principal being the Agua Dulce, a short distance from the sea, eleven miles in length, 800 feet in width and from ten to forty feet in depth.
Passing from the difficult Caño de la Palma in the midst of swamps, the Caño de Tortuguero is reached, the entrance to which from the sea is called Cuatro Esquinas. It is approximately thirty-eight miles long, about one thousand feet in width, with a depth of from fifty to sixty feet. The rivers Palacio and Penetencia, navigable for boats, empty into this caño. The River Tortuguero, which gives name to the plains watered by its affluents, is formed from several of these caños, as the Caño Desenredo, Caño Agua Fria and Caño de la Lomas. The Caño de Tortuguero communicates with the Parismina by the caños California and Francisco Moria Soto, which are also navigable. The margins of the Parismina are swampy. It has as its affluents the Guasimo, Camaron, Novillos and the Destierro.
The lower district drained by the Tortuguero is raised but little above the ocean, and in flood time the river communicates by several caños with the Matina and with the delta of the Colorado, as well as with the lagoon of Caiman, lying south of the Colorado. Its numerous upper streams rise in the spurs of Irazú and Turialba.
The Sierpe and Parismina rivers flow into the sea south of Tortuguero. The former is short, but the Parismina with its several branches is a child of Irazú. Its lower course is sometimes considered to be a part of the River Reventazon, which however has its confluence with the former a few miles from the sea.
The Reventazon River has carved its way to a profound depth around the south and southeastern bases of Irazú and Turialba, and, flanking the latter volcano, it turns northward to join the Parismina. It receives many tributaries from the northern slope of the Talamanca range, and interweaves itshead waters with those of the Rio Grande de Tarcolles and the Rio Grande de Pirris, which flow into the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacuare River, once known as Suerre, enters the sea about half way between the mouth of the Reventazon and that of the Matina. Its waters, in 1630, instead of flowing to the sea, joined the Reventazon, closing the port of Suerre, but in 1651 Governor Salinas closed the northern channel, deflecting its waters and restoring the port.
The Matina River is a short stream with a large volume of water, which enters the sea just north of Port Limon near the roadstead of Moin, where, up to 1880, ocean craft anchored. The River Matina is navigable by small steamers over the bar and by large ones above the bar to the point where it receives its principal affluents, the Chirripo, Barbilla and Zent. It yearly overflows its lower valley, depositing an inch or two of exceedingly fertile mud highly appreciated by the banana planters.
The entire mainland of the coast, from the River Colorado to the Matina, is separated from the Caribbean Sea by a continuous narrow sand bank, between which and the mainland is a lagoon, said to be navigable the whole distance by boats. The intermediate rivers pour into this narrow lagoon, driving their currents across it, and, cutting through the sand bank, enter the sea. Sometimes a violent gale closes one of the openings, which are all shallow, but the river again forces an exit to the ocean through the obstruction. This whole coast for sixty-five miles, is forbidding and dangerous, and has but little depth of water within a mile of the shore, upon which a monotonous, heavy surf breaks during the entire year. It is only frequented from April until August by fishermen, who find their way to the River San Juan through the intricate system of rivers and caños described.
Port Limon, in latitude 10° north and longitude 83° 3′ 13″ west from Greenwich, is the only port of entry of Costa Rica on the Caribbean Sea. The first house was built there in 1871. The harbor faces the south, and is formed by a little peninsula on which Limon is situated. It is behind a narrow coral reef. The site, which now has perhaps 3500 to 4000 population, is being raised with earth about fourfeet, and its port will become one of the smoothest of the Caribbean Sea. A small island, called Uvita, lies east at a distance of 3660 feet from the town. Port Limon has a wooden pier 930 feet long, accommodating two sea-going ships, but an iron pier is about to replace it, which will berth four large ones of deep draught.
The Talamanca coast lying south of Limon is low, flat and swampy, except where it is broken by hills. The little River Banana is the first one met with going south, and its valleys produce large quantities of timber and bananas. Next comes the Estrella, also a short stream; then follows the Teliri, called in its lower course the Sicsola. It is the largest stream in Costa Rica south of Port Limon. It runs along the southern base of the great eastern mountains of the Talamanca range, through a spacious, undulating, wooded valley of 100 to 150 square miles area, partly low grounds in some places dry and in others swampy. It has several branches, like the Uren coming from the slopes of the Pico Blanco, the Supurio and others. At the entry of the high valleys of the Teliri and Coen rivers, the pyramid-like mountains of Nefomin and Nenfiobete appear, at the foot of which the interior plain of Talamanca, fifteen kilometers in length and eight kilometers in width, extends from southwest to northeast, and so uniformly that the water courses run indifferently and frequently change their beds.
Southward of Sicsola is the Tilorio or Changuinola, which makes a turbulent way to the sea from the Talamanca mountains. Along its lower margin mud flats spread to a great width, and, from its mouth towards the northwest, cover a region which surrounds also the lagoon of Sansan, and extends up the rivers Zhorquin and Sicsola. Behind the muddy zone the lands rise rapidly into hills, which in a few miles reach an altitude of several thousand feet, at times intermingling with the Cordillera. Along the entire sea margin of Talamanca runs a narrow sand-belt of firm land, at times not a hundred feet wide, like that described between the Matina and San Juan rivers.
Within this sand-belt are long, narrow, deep lagoons filled with half-stagnant water from the mud flats. Theselagoons usually open into the rivers which descend from the mountains.
Between the Sicsola and the Tilorio lies the already mentioned, crooked and deep lagoon called the Laguna de Sansan.
At Limon, Cahuita and Puerto Viejo, the hills, which are connected by spurs with the more elevated country of the interior, extend to the ocean coast. Between them, in plains extending from one to five miles inland, are forest-covered swamps, overflowed with not less than ten feet of water in the rainy season and only traversable in the dry.
Costa Rica claims sovereignty on the Atlantic side southeast as far as the Island of Escudo de Veragua, including the ancient Ducado de Veragua, whose frontier follows the coast of Chiriqui Viejo to the crest of the Cordillera, and crosses it to the head waters of the River Calobebora, then down this stream to the Escudo de Veragua.
Since their independence Colombia and Costa Rica have been in dispute in regard to their boundary line. Colombia has never ceased to claim jurisdiction over the entire Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and even over that of Nicaragua as far north as Cape Gracias á Dios. In November, 1896, both governments signed a convention submitting their dispute to the arbitration of the President of the French Republic, or, in the event of his failure to act, to the President of Mexico or of the Swiss Confederation.
The principal lakes of Costa Rica are the Laguna Manatí, northwest from the Sarapiqui River; the Lagunas de Poas and de Barba, each on a volcano bearing its name; Lagunas de Sansan and Samay, towards the east and near the Sicsola River, in Talamanca; Laguna Tenoria, in Guanacaste; Laguna San Carlos, in the plains of San Carlos; Laguna de Arenal, between Las Cañas and San Carlos, and Laguna de Sierpe, in the south, northward from the Golfo Dulce.
Far away from Costa Rica, in the Pacific Ocean, lies the Cocos Island, about two hundred and sixty-six miles to the southwest of the Golfo Dulce, in N. latitude 5° 32′ 57″ and longitude 86° 58′ 25″ W. of Greenwich. Its highest point reaches 2250 feet, whence the descent is gradual to a bold,steep coast, which has many irregularities and rocks and a surf-beaten shore. Chatham Bay is its best harbor, having room for a dozen ships. The interior is broken into numerous fertile valleys, but there is probably not a square kilometer of level ground in the entire island. Other islands are Chira, Venado, San Lucas, Caño, etc.
Mineral Wealth.—In regard to the mineral wealth of Costa Rica, petroleum has been discovered near Uruchiko on the Talamanca coast, and coal in certain sandstone formations on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Talamanca section.
In the province of Alajuela, a little to the north of the cart-road which runs from San José to Puentarenas, is Monte Aguacate, part of an old mountain range which extends far to the northwest, and not very distant from the Gulf of Nicoya. In general, it is of metamorphic formation, principally of diorite and porphyry.
Here, in a good climate, at 2000 feet elevation, are found auriferous veins of great richness. They are of quartz mixed with decomposed feldspathic rocks, and have yielded very lucrative bonanzas. The first mine was Guapinol, one bonanza of which produced $1,000,000. Several other mines were worked, from one of which (Los Castros) $2,000,000 were taken in a few years. It is estimated, from the best data obtainable, that about £1,000,000 have been taken from Monte Aguacate. Several of these veins are from six to seven feet wide, but that called the Quebrada Honda is sixteen feet wide. Most of the ore is of a high grade and of refractory character. It is probable that the whole southwestern slope of the Guatusos and Miravalles ranges of mountains is auriferous. The rocks in the northwestern extension of this district consist principally of feldspar, porphyry, basalt and dolorite.
The gold veins nearly all ran northeast and southwest, and are encased in feldspar, sometimes in porphyry, and occasionally in basalt. They consist, in great part, of crystalline quartz, and are from two to forty feet wide. Professor Pittier also found gold in the slopes of the Buena Vista mountain. Gold is further found in the Talamanca mountains, especiallyin the placer grounds of the Duedi River, and on the inferior hills between the Lari and Coen rivers.
Along the latter, and near Akbeta, also on the shore of Puerto Viejo, iron exists.
Copper and silver, Professor Pittier says, have been discovered in Diquis, between Paso Real and Lagarto, and native copper in Puriscal. Other mines are included in the following table:
The Principal Mines Registered in 1892.
It should be stated that, with the exception of gold and some silver, little is mined. The deposits of coal, petroleum, copper and silver have thus far yielded, under present methods of management, outputs of no commercial value.
However, anthracite is found at Santa Maria Dota, Department of Puriscal. A specimen of it, analyzed by Dr. L. J. Mátos, chief of the laboratories of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, gave these results:
It is a good quality of anthracite coal and compares very favorably with the best grades that are mined in Pennsylvania. Color, black; slight tendency to show iridescence; fracture, conchoidal, brittle; analysis, specific gravity, 1,343; weight per cubic foot, 83.93 pounds.
Proximate composition:
There are to be mentioned also some mineral waters, as, for instance, those near the mouth of the Isqui River, on the Talamanca coast; those in Agua Caliente, about five miles from the City of Cartago and belonging to the Bella Vista Company; those of Orosi and Salitral, of Poas, Miravalles, Ausoles, Bagaces, San Carlos, Liberia, San Roque, etc.