anchored in the still water; a crowd of women and several ox carts in the shallow water near the beach, were the chief features of the scene opened to us as we rounded the point of the islands. The women, clad in a single chemiselike garment, the swarthy skin of their arms and shoulders exposed to the sun, were most of them up to the waist in water, washing clothes. The beach was white with clothes spread out to dry. The carts were down for water required in the town, and some of them were driven so far into the lake that only the heads of the oxen remained visible. A crowd of men, women and children was gathered on the pier, while about the building at the opposite end was a collection of vehicles, some of which looked as if they might have been in use at the time of the conquest. The pier is several hundred feet long, and built upon log pens anchored with rock. Pile driving is unknown on the lakes. Upon the pier is an iron tramway for the handling of freight. We had now also a near view of Mombacho. This mountain is not as high as Ometepec, nor is it remarkable for symmetry, but the peak is divided

by a curved depression into two heads. In the middle of the depression is what the people call the "Lost Lion of Granada." It is a formation resembling a huge lion in a crouching attitude. Although its bald, black, double-crested summit bears mute evidence of the fact, even tradition is silent in regard to Mombacho's activity.

Northwest of Lake Nicaragua, separated from it by a strip of land about sixteen miles wide at the narrowest part, lies Lake Managua. Although greatly inferior in size, it is nevertheless a considerable body of water. Its greatest length is about fifty, and its greatest width about thirty-five miles. The level of Lake Managua is about twenty-four feet above that of Nicaragua. Upon existing maps a connection between the two lakes is indicated by the Rio Tipitapa, but in this, as in many other instances in Central American geography, the word river is misleading. In seasons of excessive rainfall there is probably a considerable overflow from the upper to the lower lake, but ordinarily the channel of the Tipitapa proper is quite dry. And that it was so at the time of

the conquest appears from the testimony of the Spanish chronicles of that period. The socalled river is formed on the Nicaragua side by a river-like extension of the lake itself. This extension, called the Estero Panaloya, is twelve miles long, and at its head about 300 feet wide. The banks are low and densely wooded, and the depth of water at Pasquier, where the Tipitapa begins, is six feet. From Pasquier to Lake Managua, a distance of four miles or therabout, the Tipitapa is a broad ravine with a dry bed. About a mile below the lake, opposite the hamlet of Tipitapa, is the fall of the same name. It is an escarpment about fifteen feet high. Several hot springs occur in the valley, and at this place there is one the temperature of which is near the boiling point. It is noted among the natives for its medicinal properties.

By one of the provisions of its concession, the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua is required to cut a canal from Pasquier to Lake Managua, navigable for vessels of six feet draft. The material to be excavated is soft, volcanic rock in the bed of the Tipitapa, and mud, for a