SALVADOR.—NICARAGUA. 33 
SALVADOR. 
Salvador, though the smallest of the Central American Republics, is one of the 
most densely populated and largely cultivated, and consequently there is but little 
forest. It is bounded by Guatemala on the west and Honduras on the north and east. 
The country averages about 60 miles in breadth, and the coast line on the Pacific is 
160 miles in length. The seaboard consists of a comparatively narrow alluvial plain, 
beyond which is a plateau with a mean elevation of 2000 feet, broken by a number of 
volcanic cones lying to the south of the main Cordillera, and the whole Republic is’ 
very subject to earthquakes and volcanic outbreaks. ‘The general aspect of Salvador 
led us to believe that the fauna and flora would be very similar to that of Guatemala 
and Honduras, consequently we neither visited the country ourselves nor did we 
employ any collectors there. 
NICARAGUA. 
The Republic of Nicaragua, wedged in between Honduras on the north and Costa 
Rica on the south, has a coast-line of about 280 miles on the Caribbean Sea and about 
200 on the Pacific. The land gradually decreases in width from north to south, while 
the main watershed extends eastward from within a few miles of the Pacific Ocean. 
Greytown (San Juan del Norte), at the mouth of the San Juan River, formerly 
possessed a fine harbour, but of late years the Colorado branch of the river, which 
bifurcates about twenty miles from the coast, now takes most of the water and the old 
channel and harbour have silted up. The main geographical feature of the country is 
the remarkable depression stretching for about 200 miles from the north-west to the 
south-east, parallel with the Pacific Coast and to the central plateau. This depression, 
which lies at a mean elevation of about 100 feet, is flooded by two great lakes, 
Managua and Nicaragua, which collect the drainage-water of the western provinces and 
also that from the eastern range of mountains, finally discharging it through the San 
Juan River into the Caribbean Sea, a distance of 120 miles. ‘The Lake of Managua is 
about 50 miles in length and 25 in breadth; the level is 16 feet higher than that of 
Lake Nicaragua, but the natural outlet, except in high flood, carries but little water, 
the surplus passing off by evaporation. The Lake of Nicaragua is about 100 feet above 
the sea-level and 150 miles long. Throughout its entire length this great depression 
is traversed by a remarkable chain of isolated volcanic cones, which, north of the lakes, 
takes the name of Marabios, terminating at the extreme north-west with Coseguina 
(4000 feet), and in the extreme south-east in the low wooded archipelago of Solenti- 
name and Chichicaste, near the entrance to the San Juan River. These volcanoes 
range from 4000 to over 6000 feet, while Momotombo, the highest point in the Republic 
of Nicaragua between the Gulf of Fonseca aud Lake Managua, reaches an altitude of 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Introd. Vol., January 1915. EF 
