APRIL, 1908. LAKES AMATITLAN AND ATITLAN MEEK. 



161 



LAKE AMATITLAN. 



Lake Amatitlan is situated on the Pacific slope of Guatemala in 

 lat. 90 30' N., long. 14 25' W. Its surface is about 4,000 feet above 

 sea level, and about 1,000 feet below the plateau on which the City of 

 Guatemala is built. It is strictly a mountain lake, the depression 

 which it occupies having been formed when the surrounding mountains 

 took their present form. It may, therefore, best be considered as 



HOTEL LAGUNA, LAKE AMATITLAN 



occupying the bottom of a depression in the plateau above mentioned. 

 The lake and its small valley are surrounded by mountains whose 

 average altitude, except the canon and a few low hills to the south- 

 west, is from about 800 to 1,300 feet above its surface. It occupies 

 an area near the head waters of the Michatoya River, through which 

 its waters find an outlet to the sea. During the earliest portion of 

 its history it was somewhat oval in outline, its greatest width being 

 about 3 miles, its length about 8 miles. The long diameter of the 

 lake is nearly in a northwest and southeast direction. To the north- 

 east is a small valley which is drained into the lake by the Lobos 

 River, the only stream which flows into the lake during the entire 

 year. This stream has the appearance of having shifted its position 



