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MEXICAN GULF COAST ILLUSTRATED.
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politan city. The Battle House, by reason of the excellence of its arrangements and appointments, meets the requirements of a first-class caravansary. Mobile sits by the sea, and upon one of the finest land-locked bays iu the world ; it may become the winter capital of the United States. Half a dozen more first class hotels along Mississippi Sound would be liberally patronized just as the Florida hotels are. It is only a question of time when they will be supplied.
ON Ttte COAST.
The remarkable healthfulness of the Coast—the region along the Gulf of Mexico in the States of Alabama and Mississippi—has long been recognized in official statistics and reports. Vital statistics show'that there is no healthier region in the United States. A chart made not long since by the Marine Hospital Service, at Washington, laid off in latitudinal zones, indicates the local diseases which prevail in every part of the country. The Coast is shown to be absolutely free from any local disease and is the only section where such immunity exists. The prevailing winds are from the south and travel over a broad expanse of the sea, charged with its saline t and health-giving properties. The writer has not seen a wind rosette, or an official report, but is informed that next in volume during a year, are the northerly winds which sw'eep for an hundred miles and more over forests of yellow pine; a priceless boon to those living on the coast, and to visitors both iu summer and winter; an exhaustless reservoir of oxygen charged with balm and perfume extracted from clustering colonades of pine which stretch away to the prairie region of the States named.	n
The climate has proved highly beneficial to persons suffering from phthisis, weak lungs, asthma, catarrh, bronchitis, and kindred complaints. The air is, in itself, a tonic, and persons who have become debilitated from overwork or other causes have tried its effects with highly gratifying results. That the climate is exceedingly beneficial and curative in catarrhal