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DEPARTMENT OF SAN MARCOS.

This department has an area of 750 square miles, and its chief town is the city of the same name. There are three municipalities and twenty other towns, with a total population of 93,181 inhabitants. It has several means of communication, the principal one being the national road from San Marcos to Quezaltenango where it branches off from that leading from the capital of the Republic and one to the frontiers of Mexico. Important agricultural enterprises keep the department in constant activity. The exportations from it are gutta-percha, sarsaparilla, and hides. The other products are sugar cane, wheat, cacao, beans, and other cereals of various climates. There are manufactures of cotton and woolen goods, shoes, etc. Primary teaching is given in 68 schools, 44 for boys, 20 for young girls, 2 mixed, and 2 night schools for adults, besides 2 secondary ones for boys and 1 for young girls.

DEPARTMENT OF HUEHUETENANGO.

This department contains two large cities and thirty-two municipalities, with a population of 136,114 souls. Its chief town is the city bearing the same name. The most part of the inhabitants are agriculturists; the principal products are sugar cane, coffee, cotton, wheat, oats, various kinds of fruits, etc. There are gold, silver, iron, lead, and salt mines, but only the two last minerals are worked; the lead at Tojlon and the salt at San Mateo, Ixtatan, and Pichiquil. Industry consists in the manufacture of woolen and cotton goods, and some other articles.

Public instruction is furnished by 1 secondary school for young people, 57 primary schools for boys, 27 for girls, and 3 night schools for adults.

DEPARTMENT OF QUICHÉ.

This department, with a superficial area of 1,300 square miles, has seventeen municipalities and 90,300 inhabitants. Its chief

town, Santa Cruz of Quiché, situated in a plain covering an area of more than twelve miles from north to south, and of forty-five from east to west, is the commercial center of the department. Among the other cities may be mentioned also Sacapulas, built on the banks of the Rio Negro and at the base of a now extinct volcano; it is celebrated on account of having been founded by Bartholomew de Las Casas.

The most part of the lands of this department, which has a temperate and agreeable climate, are still wild, but very fertile and adapted to colonization. They principally produce wheat, rice, maize, tobacco, sarsaparilla, and fruits in abundance. The forests which cover the mountains of the north contain timber of every kind, black balsam, vegetable wax, and a great variety of other, products. In various localities there are gold, silver, iron, opal, alabaster, plaster, and other mines which, when properly worked, will soon prove a source of great wealth for the country.

The department supports 44 primary schools, 30 for boys, 12 for girls, and 2 for both sexes.

DEPARTMENT OF BAJA VERAPAZ.

This department contains 11 municipalities and a population of 50,874 inhabitants. Its chief town is the city of Salamá, situated at a height of 3,100 feet above the level of the sea. The climate is changeable, but generally dry and hot. The principal products are coffee, sugar cane, cacao, sarsaparilla, vegetable wax, etc. The grape grows wild, and the Government is trying to encourage its cultivation. Timber and dye woods are very abundant. There are also auriferous sands, lead, mica, talc, oxide of plumbago, and asbestus; but all of this wealth is unavailable for want of labor and capital. The inhabitants are employed in raising cattle, in agriculture, and in manufacturing straw hats and tissues of various kinds. The sugar made in San Geronimo, one of the municipalities of the department, is of first quality; the brandy distilled in the

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same locality is very celebrated and has received various medals. at an exposition held in Chile, and at those of Paris in 1878 and 1889. The department of Baja Verapaz contains several natural curiosities, such as the grotto of Puruia, the waterfall of La Concepcion, and the ruins of Rabinal, of Cubulco, and of San Geronimo.

There are 40 primary schools, 27 for boys, 12 for girls and I night school for adults.

DEPARTMENT OF ALTA VERAPAZ.

This department has 13 municipalities and a population of 110,936 inhabitants. The climate is temperate, somewhat dam.p, but very healthy. The city of Coban, which is the chief town, is situated in the center of the Republic, on a plateau 4,300 feet above the level of the sea.

Recently this department has acquired a great territorial and commercial importance. Coffee of a superior quality is carefully cultivated and employs considerable capital, furnishing the staple of the great mass of exports of the port of Panzós, on the Potochic River. This river, as already stated, empties into Lake Izabal, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The other products of this department are cotton, Peruvian bark, cereals, and a great quantity of fruits.

Near the city of Lanquin is the grotto of the same name, the size of which, thus far, has as yet not been ascertained.

The department supports a secondary school for young girls, and 36 primary schools, 19 for boys, 15 for girls, and 2 at night for adults.

DEPARTMENT OF PETEN.

This department, which covers an area of 13,200 square miles, is the most extensive one of the Republic, and yet it contains only 8,604 inhabitants with 12 municipalities.

Bull. 32- -3

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