Brinton] 4:00 [Nov. 18, 



of terrific outbursts at no distant date. In tlie eruption of 

 March, 1872, Masaya vomited a lava stream two miles in width.* 



I quote these facts to show the volcanic character of the 

 countr}^ and the powerful agencies at work there. 



For our present purpose, we have to confine our attention to 

 the extinct volcano of Tizcapa. Like its neighbors, the cones 

 of Nezcapa and Asososco, it has long since burnt out its fires, 

 and all three have chany,ed their flaming craters into deep and still 

 lakes, encircled by precipitous walls of congealed masses. Tiz- 

 capa is about two and a-half miles from the shore of Lake Mana- 

 gua, and in ancient times its molten streams found their way 

 into the waters of the lake. Its eruptions were irregular, and 

 evidently long periods of quiescence intervened between those of 

 violent action, periods extended enough to sUow the earlier tufa 

 beds and lava streams to become covered with A'egetation, the 

 relics of which we find imbedded beneath later overflows. How 

 much time this would require is a vital question in deciding the 

 age of the footprints. These are found on the surface of the 

 ji7-st or lowest tufa bed, which itself rests upon a bed of 3'ellow 

 sand. 



Before proceeding to a discussion of the antiquity we may 

 fairly assign to the relic, I shall insert Dr. Flint's description 

 of the locality, and add a vertical section of the cutting in the 

 quarry on the lake shore, in which the footprints are found. 

 Both of these he has kindly sent me in a recent letter. 



" The Cordilleras east of Lake Nicaragua are a continuous 

 succession of low mountains, spread out and gradually diminish- 

 ing to the depression, where the outlet of Lake Nicaragua passes 

 seaward by the San Juan river. In past ages the spur west of 

 the lakes Nicaragua and Managua (formerly part of an ocean 

 inlet) was the theatre of volcanic action seldom exceeded ; and 

 its latent fires, out of the axial line, at Ometepetec and Momo- 

 tombo, still smoke. These magnificent cones may continue to 

 burn for ages, until they disappear, like their neighbors, leaving 

 like tliem, an abyss to mark their location. 



" Zapatero has its deep lake, whose surface is but slightly above 

 the waters of the one surrounding it ; north-west and near 

 Granada, we look down from the edge of the old crater on a 



* See Pablo Levy, Notas sobrc la Bepublica de Nicaragua, pp. S3, 84 (Paris, 1873), and A. 

 Schiftman, Una Idea sobrc la Geolojia de Nicaragua, p. 125 (Managua, 1873). 



