To the north of the Isthmus, along the shores of Central America and Mexico, as far at least as the northern tropic, the climate is considered “malsano,” or exceedingly unhealthy; a fact well known to those who trade with Realejo, San Blas, and Mazatlan, where very dangerous remittent fevers prevail. To the southward of the Isthmus on the shores of Colombia, in about 2° south latitude, we find the port and city of Guayaquil, of well-known commercial importance. Here, the climate is considered unhealthy during the wet season, when the air is sultry and oppressive; but in the dry season Guayaquil is not reckoned particularly sickly. The rain commences in light showers in December, is very heavy in February, and dwindles away in April. From May to December is the dry season. The wet season, being the hottest, would naturally be considered as summer; but here, as in other places of seasonal or periodical rains, the wet season is called “invierno,” or winter, and the dry season “verano,” or summer; yet the latter is cooler than the former, and allows one to wear warmer clothing than would be agreeable in the rainy months. In the rainy season the thermometer ascends to 90° or 96° Fahrenheit; but, during the dry season, it ranges from 65° to 85°, being 65° at night, and rarely exceeding 80°, though it sometimes reaches 85° during the day. The rain usually falls in the afternoon or night, seldom in the forenoon, when the sun is often so powerful as nearly to dry up the pools and streets before the evening rain comes on again; however, there are days when no rain falls. The houses being covered with tiles, and furnished with arcades, are sufficiently defended against sun and rain. The plain extending between mountain and sea is, for ten or twelve leagues inland, well wooded, and intersected here and there with smaller rivers which the natives call esteros or lakes, in allusion probably to their appearance during the wet season, when, teeming with alligators, they inundate the beautiful meadows round about; so that the term “river” is only applied, by way of distinction, to the great navigable river of the city, which is so influenced by the tide, at least in the dry season, as to be quite briny to the taste. Here the natives bathe all the year round,—a practice, we believe, which conduces not a little to the general health and fair and stately form of the Guayaquilenian ladies, who are said to be fonder of town, and the ease of their hammocks, than of country air and exercise. The streets of Guayaquil, being steeped in rain, become contaminated for want of police; insects swarm on every side, and vegetable and animal emanations pollute the atmosphere: malaria abounds; and fevers, dysenteries, and various gastric disorders attack the inhabitants, and especially the imprudent stranger, who, trusting in his youth and strength, and not considering that difference of climate demands corresponding difference of life, perseveres in the same habits