Usually in describing the country it is divided into three zones. The _tierra caliente_, or hot lands, comprise the coast of the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean. The _tierra templada_, or temperate zone, covers the central plains which range from 2,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea level. The _tierra fria_, or cold zone, comprises the highlands as noted above. The year is divided into two seasons, the winter or rainy season lasting from May till October, and the dry season. The hottest months are March and April and the coldest ones December and January. Except along the coast the average temperature throughout the year is about 72° Fahrenheit. The climate on the coast is rendered endurable by the refreshing sea breezes which blow for several hours every day. Many people who live in the uplands in the rarefied atmosphere find it agreeable and beneficial to their health to spend a few weeks every season on the coast lands. The climate would be hot and moist except for the variations caused by the mountains which oppose themselves not only to the prevailing winds but also in rainfalls to the humidity of the air. The winds are from the east and north, although along the Pacific coast there are southern and southwestern winds at certain times in the year. In regard to rainfall the general rule is that the regions confronting the moist winds from the ocean have abundant precipitation while those defended by mountain ranges from the sea winds are dry. The climate taking the country as a whole is an unusually healthy one. Fevers are not common and when they exist are confined to the warm and humid coast regions. No peculiar climatic disease exists in Guatemala and the country rarely suffers from epidemics. This is largely due to the strict sanitary measures which are enforced by the government. A POETICAL AND PRACTICAL DESCRIPTION. The following account of the climate in popular language is given by a well-known authority: "The territory of the Republic belongs to the torrid zone comprised among the intertropical countries which are exempt from the rigorous winters of the countries of Europe, North and South America, and the Far East. The vegetation which droops in the dry season recovers a marvelous exuberance in the season of the rains. In every part it is encountered then rehabited in the most splendid garb of nature. The tropical countries at this period certainly are the motherland of all the plants which are cultivated throughout the world when as in the case of our Republic there are hot, temperate and cold zones in which the vegetation is perpetual and flourishes in the regions which possess perennial springs of flowing water to moisten the cultivated lands in the season of the drouths.