LIMON, or

See also:

• PORT

PORT LIMON  , the chief Atlantic port of Costa Rica, Central America, and the capital of a district also named Limon, on a bay of the Caribbean Sea, 103 M . E. by N. of San Jose . Pop . (1904) 3171 . Limon was founded in 1871, and is the terminus of the transcontinental railway to Puntarenas which was begun in the same year . The swamps behind the town, and the shallow coral lagoon in front of it, have been filled in . The harbour is protected by a sea-wall built along the low-water line, and an iron pier affords accommodation for large vessels . A breakwater from the harbour to the island of Uvita, about 1200 yds: E. would render Limon a first-class port . There is an excellent water-supply from the hills above the harbour . Almost the entire coffee and banana crops of Costa Rica are sent by rail for shipment at Limon to Europe and the United States . The district (comarca) of Limon comprises the whole Atlantic littoral, thus including the Talamanca country inhabited by uncivilized Indians; the richest banana-growing territories in the country; and the valuable forests of the San Juan valley . It is annually visited by Indians from the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua, who come in canoes to fish for turtle .

Its chief towns, after Limon, are Reventazon and Matina, both with

fever than 3000 inhabitants .