ed encampments, and preserve their ancestral
language and customs. For an account of early Indian civilization in
Costa Rica, see CENTRAL AMERICA: Archaeology. The Mosquito Indians come
every summer to fish for turtle off the Atlantic coast. As only 200
negroes were settled in Costa Rica when slavery was abolished in 1824,
and no important increase ever took place through immigration, the black
population is remarkably small, amounting only to some 1200.

_Chief Towns and Communications._--The whites are congregated in or near
the chief towns, which include the capital, San Jose (pop. 1904 about
24,500), the four provincial capitals of Alajuela (4860), Cartago
(4536), Heredia (7151) and Liberia or Guanacaste (2831), with the
seaportsof Puntarenas (3569), on the Pacific, and Limon (3171) on the
Atlantic. These, with the exception of Heredia and Liberia, are
described in separate articles. The transcontinental railway from Limon
to Puntarenas was begun in 1871, and forms the nucleus of a system
intended ultimately to connect all the fertile parts of the country, and
to join the railways of Nicaragua and Panama. It skirts the Atlantic
coast as far as the small port of Matina; thence it passes inland to
Reventazon, and bifurcates to cross the northern mountains; one branch
going north of Irazu, while the other traverses the Ochomogo Pass. At
San Jose these lines reunite, and the railway is continued to Alajuela,
the small Pacific port of Tivives, and Puntarenas. The railways are
owned partly by the state, partly by the Costa Rica railway company,
which, in 1904, arranged to build several branch lines through the
banana districts of the Atlantic littoral. Apart from the main lines of
communication the roads are very rough, often mere tracks; and the
principal means of transport are ox-carts or pack-mules. The postal and
telegraphic services are also somewhat inadequate.

_Agriculture and Industries._--The name "Costa Rica," meaning "rich
coast," is well deserved; for, owing to the combination of ample
sunshine and moisture with a wonderfully fertile soil, almost any kind
of fruit or flower can be successfully cultivated; while the vast tracts
of virgin forest, which remain along the Atlantic slopes, contain an
abundance of cedar, mahogany, rosewood, rubber and ebony, with fustic
and other precious dye-woods. The country is essentially agricultural,
and owes its political stability to the presence of a large class of
peasant