road company to assume the protection of life and
property on the transit, with power virtually to inflict
condign punishment on criminals. The force organ-
ized while the railway was being built consisted ef
forty men, motley in color, costume, and character,
but very efficient, and was under the command of a
delicate, boyish-looking, but most energetic Texan
ranger, named Ran Runnels. Though this force had
no jurisdiction in the city of Panama, it occasionally
made arrests of desperate characters within the walls,
the criminals receiving their punishment without.
This irregularity was winked at by the authorities.
In a short time the Isthmus was free of the numerous
malefactors, which had been drawn from all parts of
the world to prey upon travellers crossing from ocean
to ocean.
The climate of the Isthmus is very hot on the coasts, but on the sides of the mountains in the interior it is comparatively cool and healthy. The city of Panama is the healthiest sea-board spot in this region, miasmatic fever being prevalent almost everywhere else. Besides standing out in the sea as it does, the waters of the ocean playing upon three sides of it, and from which it receives breezes opposing the insalubrious air of the interior, there stands the hill Ancon at the rear of the peninsula, forming a natural barrier to the poison-breathing swamps of the Rio Grande beyond. With proper care, and avoiding the abuse of spirituous liquors, a foreigner may safely live in Panamd, the year round; indeed, during the dry season, which is from the middle of December to the middle of May, with the strong northerly winds which then prevail, and the absence of heavy rains, the cli- mate is both delio'htful and wholesome.
o
The bay of Panama is a picture of languid beauty. It is large and open, yet well protected, but so shal- low near the town that lame vessels are oblio-ed to anchor two or three miles ofl" shore. On one side is the sea into which it opens, spreading out for
