368. The warm or temperate lands.— Name the countries between the southern end of the southwestern plateaus and the Isthmus of Panama. (Fig. 299.) The moun tains of this region are as high as the highest Appalachians. The so-called temperate region is on the eastern and western slopes of these mountains and on the similar slopes coming down from the Central Plateau of Mexico.
Much of this temperate land is high enough to be cool, but not cold enough for frost. Indeed it has the delightful tem perature of a pleasant spring day. Yet it has enough heat to produce fine crops and enough rainfall to support forests. It is in this temperate region that most of the people of Central America live. Nearly all of it is made up of small uplands, the slopes of hill sides, and narrow valleys through which streams rush down toward the lowlands. There are no wide, level plains like the Com Belt, the Wheat Belt, or the Plateau of Mexico.
369. Village life. — The people continue to live much as they did before Columbus came to Amer ica. The grass huts and stone houses are group ed in little villages which are surrounded by banana and orange trees, and by other trees whose fruit we may not have tasted. Space for little gardens is secured by chopping down the weeds with a long knife,themachete. (Fig. 300.) The planting is sometimes done with the aid of a sharp stick, and the crops are cul tivated with hand tools and without theaid of animals or plow. This simple culture is applied to gardens and to little patches of corn, yams, and cassava. These three vegetables have the same place in the native diet that bread and potatoes have in our own. The cassava is an edible ma somewhat like the sweet potato or yam. (Fig. 551.) For eating, the root is first boiled,then dried and grated into meal. The meal is mixed with water, and baked in little thin cakes which serve as bread. Milk, eggs, and meat are furnished by the cows, goats, chickens, and pigs which roam about.
Above the villages perched on the hillsides are the sharp mountain tops; below are the hot, forested lowlands where swamps breed mosquitoes.
370. Trade.—Coffee and hides are the chief exports of the upland people. These articles are easy to carry on the back of a mule down a rough trail to the port, or to the railroad station from which they are ship ped. Equally easy to carry is chicle, a gum
gathered from trees in the forest, and from which chewing gum is made. These people of the green hillsides pay with chicle, coffee, and hides for the hardware, clothes, and other manufactures that we send them on the steamers going to the Caribbean ports.
371. The hot lands.—The low land along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the Carib bean, and the Pacific is a hot land. It is a flat country, and heavy rains make many swamps, especially in the eastern part, where the rains are heavier and the low plain is wider.
Every day in the year mosquitoes buzz; there is no frost there to lay them low even for a season. For a long time the Mexicans called Vera Cruz " The City of the Dead," because it was so unhealthful. Trees grow rank and green on this jungle plain. Creep ers and vines climb the trees and tangle the branches into jungle masses, through which a man can pass only after cutting a path with the machete, a piece of property more common than shoes in this tropic forest land. For centuries these coast forests have been little more than a barrier which kept people from the interior slopes and plateaus. Until recently only a few logs of mahogany and cedar had been exported, but now some rubber has been sent out, and banana plan tations (Sec. 375) have been started. But from the Lower Rio Grande district to Panama, as well as on the Pacific side, the coast plain still remains an almost unbroken forest, with fringes of beautiful coconut trees waving their long leaves along the shore. (Figs. 302, 535.) 372. Hot land cities.—Name four coast cities in this region. (Fig. 299.) They are all small cities, for people do not live on the coast unless held by business. (Sec. 371.) Steamers call at a few small Pacific ports on their way from Panama to San Fran cisco; but most of the trade of the region is from the east coast for two reasons: (1) The eastern plain, with bananas, sisal, and petro leum,produces much more than the western plain does; (2) nearly all of the trade is with countries across the Atlantic.