1887.] ^Oif [Brinton. 



placid lake, whose four square miles of water are seldom stirred 

 by the wind, and whose depth has not yet been fathomed. 

 When were the fires of this immense crater extinguished? 



" Lake Masaya far exceeds that of Apoj-o ; as we descend the 

 deep ravines cut through the tufas to its margin, we see the work 

 of centuries carryin-j; back this detritus to refill the abyss, and no 

 perceptible diminution is noted. Passing on, we find the lakes 

 Nehapa, Asososco, and Tizcapa, under similar conditions ; the 

 latter near Managua, furnished the material forming the tufas 

 on which the footprints occur. 



" These lakes at the time of the Spanish occupation, now nearly 

 four centuries, presented nearly the same aspect as they do now ; 

 their rock-bound shores were covered with inscriptions, of which 

 no tradition could be obtained of the tribes then occupying 

 this region. The countr^^ was clothed with impenetrable forest 

 that had sprung up on these arid wastes of tufa. We dig below 

 this fertile soil, and after removiu'- five well-marked beds of tufa, 

 including a lower one of pure ash, we encounter a deposit of 

 clay, a soil of other times, accumulated under circumstances 

 familiar to that now on the surface. It also had its phmts and 

 trees. Among the former we see long liriaceous leaves impressed 

 on the friable deposit. We ask, is this the soil of the first in- 

 habitants? Before deciding, we dig below, through four more 

 deposits, with other accumulations in the seams, of pumice and 

 volcanic sand. We reach a thin friable tufa., nearly black, about 

 two inches thick ; removing it, we find a heavy deposit of tufa 

 lying on j'^ellow sand. This is the last in the series ; on its 

 upper surface we find innumerable footprints of a [)eople who 

 had passed over it, at different times, when in a plastic state. 

 Some sank deep in the mass, wliile others left superficial impres- 

 sions. Now and then, a stray leaf of that horizon was trodden 

 into the imprints ; others are on the friable under-surface ; the}^ 

 seem to difl'er from those above under the ash." 



Dr. Flint sends me a vertical section of the quarry from which 

 the present specimen was taken. The location is about 300 feet 

 from the shore and close to the town of Managua. At that 

 point the overl^nng strata present a thickness of twenty-one feet 

 beneath the surface soil, the most of the mass being compact 

 tufti, similar in general appearance to the block bearing the im- 

 print. 



