106 SQUIER'S ACCOUNT OF LAKE YOJOA. [Jan. 10, 1859. 



if the wood were of a quality adapted for ship-building ? The argument there- 

 fore was good for nothing. And then as to Mr. Crawfurd's statement that wheat 

 could not be produced on the Zambesi because it would not grow within the 

 tropics ; the fact being, that wheat was extensively cultivated in India, except 

 south of 13° N. latitude. The finest wheat in the world might be found growing 

 at the level of the sea, and one of the six species or varieties had long been 

 imported because of its gluten in the preparation of cotton cloths at Man- 

 chester. In spite, therefore, of the gloomy prognostications of Mr. Crawfurd, 

 the public might still live in hopes that East Africa would be opened up to our 

 advantage in a commercial sense. 



The second Paper read was— 



2. Account of the Lake Yojoa or Taulehe, in Honduras^ Central ATnerica. 

 By E. G. Squier, Esq., of the United States. 



[The paper will be printed in the Journal.] 



The lakes of Central America are among its most interesting fea- 

 tures, and, next to its volcanoes, are the most likely io arrest the 

 attention of a traveller. Few of these are more remarkable than 

 Lake Itra, which receives the copious drainage of a great basin, but 

 has no apparent outlet, and Lake Yojoa, a sheet of water 25 miles 

 in length, which has only lately appeared in our maps — a fact suffi- 

 cient to indicate our very imperfect knowledge of the geography, 

 of Honduras. The waters of Yojoa escape by no less than nine sub- 

 terranean outlets ; there is al6o an open one through which enough 

 water runs to float a canoe when the season is not very dry. The 

 average depth of the lake is from. 18 to 24 feet, and, its elevation is 

 2050 feet above the sea-level. It occupies the centre of one of those 

 singular basins, of which Honduras offers many examples, called 

 not inappropriately " bolsones," or pockets. These are formed 

 by the contortions of the mountains, whose spurs frequently coil 

 round upon themselves, sometimes describing almost complete 

 circles, and enclosing plains or lakes of varying extent and eleva- 

 tion. In these, the waters of the surrounding springs and the sur- 

 face mountain drainage converge and form the commencement of 

 considerable rivers. 



The subterranean outlets of Yojoa traverse the mountain walls of 

 the lolson£ in which it lies, and its waters reappear to light bursting 

 through their opposite sides. They consist of limestone, probably 

 much cracked by volcanic agency, resting upon a sandstone basis, 

 and the subterranean outlets of the lake exactly coincide with the 

 line at which this sandstone stratum is found to crop out. 



Colonel Sykes, m.p., f.r.g.s., said it appeared to him that a company 

 would have a great advantage in working a railway, the whole length of which 



