258 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



they have never been seen in eruption, nor have they yet been ascended b}^ any 

 scientific explorer. Such pretended volcanoes are Teapasemi (3,000 feet), in the 

 Dipilto range, about midway between the two oceans, the Guayraaca and Boqueron 

 heights in the Misoco chain. 



RivEKS, Islands, Inlets. 



Honduras, being well exposed to the Atlantic rains, is traversed by numerous 

 watercourses, nor are there any closed basins, as in Mexico and Guatemala. In 

 the west the first copious stream is the Chamelicon (Chamlico), which flows from 

 the Merendon Hills parallel with the Motagua of Guatemala, terminating, after a 

 rapid course of over 160 miles, in a delta connected by one branch with the 

 Puerto-Caballos lagoon. The Chamelicon might almost be regarded as an 

 affluent of the Ulua, its lower course running for 30 miles, parallel with that 

 stream through the same low-lying plain, where their waters are intermingled 

 during the floods. 



But apart from the Chamelicon, the Ulua is the largest river in Honduras, its 

 catchment basin comprising about a third of the whole state, and occupying all 

 the space between the jMerendon and Chile ranges. From the west it is joined 

 by the Santiago (Venta), swollen by the Rio Santa Barbara, and various emissaries 

 from the great Lake Yojoa. From the south comes the Humuya, which may be 

 regarded as the main branch ; from the east, the Sulaco.. 



Lake Yojoa (Taulebe) has the form of an upland valley disposed crescent-shape 

 from south to north, and without any visible affluent at low water. But during 

 the floods it rises to a great height, sending its overflow through the Jaitique at 

 its south-eastern extremity to the Santa Barbara. But there are other outlets by 

 which its waters also escape, disappearing in the 2^ozos or cavities of the sur- 

 rounding fossiliferous limestone rocks and reappearing lower down as tributaries 

 of the Santa Barbara. According to Stanton and Edwards, there are no less than 

 nine of these underground emissaries all flowing during the rainy season to the 

 headstreams of the Ulua. 



During: the floods the Ulua is accessible to small steamers as far as the Sulaco 

 confluence ; but the bar at its mouth has scarcely more than three feet of water, 

 so that shipping is obliged to anchor at some distance from the estuary. 



The next large river going east from the Ulua is the Aguan or Romano, which 

 enters the sea tlirough two channels between Capes Honduras (Caxinas) and 

 Cameron. The Romano, which is said to have a course of over 120 miles, traverses 

 a forest region of great sylvan beauty abounding in auriferous sands. But it is 

 a less copious stieara than the Patuca, whose various sources flow from the Misoco 

 and Chile ranges and unite in a single channel above the formidable gorge of the 

 Portal del Infierno, or " Hell-gate." From this point the Patuca is navigable for 

 the rest of its course to its mouth, which presents the same difficulties as those of 

 all the other estuaries along this coast. 



The abundant alluvia of the Rio Patuca have advanced in a sharp point beyond 

 the normal sLore-iine, enclosing right and left shallow marine lagoons, which 



