144 SELLING LATIN AMERICA only European colony in Central America. Its inhabitants are Indians and negroes, with a few mixed breeds, and less than a thousand whites. It has no railways, although some ef fort has been made to get capital interested, so far unsuccessfully. The British Govern ment seems to have completely neglected this possession. Its rivers, navigable for some dis tance, serve all its transportation requirements. The topography and climate of all these countries is much the same. Mountain ranges cross and recross them, having peaks of considerable altitude, many of which are still active volcanoes. As is obvious, these mountain systems influence the climate to a marked degree, making it always pleasant and spring-like in the plateaus extended be tween them, as well as in the intermediary tablelands. The higher elevations are always cool, while the low-lying coast-lands are ex tremely warm and, as a rule, unhealthy. The watershed which they form deflects the streams arising in them toward either the Pacific or the Atlantic. If harnessed these streams