FLORES, capital of the Guatemalan province of Peten, located about 275m. N.N.E. of Guatemala city. Population esti mated at 6,000, the only town of such size in the region. Its exports are chicle (the gum of the chicle-zapote tree and the basis of chewing-gum), mahogany and Spanish cedar. Flores can be reached via Chianaja, Guatemala, and up the River Pasion from Sebol, but the ordinary route is overland from Belize, British Honduras. Flores is the distributing and exporting centre for the entire region, the chicle bales going via Belize and the hardwoods being floated down the river. The whole region, except for the clearings where foods for local consumption are raised, is a heavily wooded tropical wilderness, abounding in an immense variety of hardwoods, which are not shipped as the market is limited and many of them are too heavy to float in water. Flores is the centre of extensive archaeological expeditions into the history and ruins of the old Maya empire. The ruins of hundreds of villages and scores of immense ancient cities are buried in the forests of Peten, their discovery as reported from time to time by American and British archaeologists following expeditions into the trackless, steaming forests, the only guides to which are the "chicleros" or chicle-gatherers. Petroleum seepages have been discovered in Peten, but the cost of carrying in drilling equipment and the construction of pipe-lines should oil wells be struck, have, up to the present time, prevented the development of this resource. (W. Trio.)