274 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



extinct Choiico and Yiejo (6,300 feet) cones, beyond wliicli follows the Marrabîos 

 range of pe.iks, mostly little ovei' 3,000 feet, but culminating about the centre of 

 the system in Telica, 4,200 feet high. Somewhat east of the Marrabios the series 

 of Yolcanoes is continued by the majestic Momotombo (6,150 feet), whose base 

 forms a promontory in Lake Managua, and which has been in eruption so recently 

 as 1852. Formerly the missionaries baptised the burning mountains, but some 

 monks who had undertaken to plant the cross on Momotombo never returned. 



Chiltepec (2,800 feet), which rises out of the very waters of Managua, is 

 followed by some less elevated cones on the mainland, where they are in close 

 proximity to lagoons evidently at one time forming part of the lake. About 

 midway between the two basins stands the famous Masaya (2,800 feet), which was 

 formerly known to the Spaniards by the name of Infierno, "Hell," and which in 

 pre-Columbian times was said to have borne the name of Popocatepetl, like the 

 Mexican giant. 



Masaya, that is, the " Burning Mountain," was first ascended by Oviedo, who 

 saw its crater filled with boiling lavas. At that time slight eruptions occurred 

 at almost regular intervals of fifteen minutes, and the yellow fluid bubbling up on 

 the bed of the crater was supposed to be molten gold. Two Spanish monks, accom- 

 panied by three fellow-countrymen and many Indians, having failed to secure any 

 of the precious liquid, it occurred to Juan Alvarez, dean of the chapter of Leon, 

 to tap the perennial stream by means of a tunnel driven through the flank of the 

 mountain. But before the work could be seriously taken in hand, Masaya boiled 

 over of its own accord in 1772, and since then it has been quiescent, except in 1852 

 when it ejected a few jets of vapour. But in 1856, Nindiri, a parasitic crater on 

 its flank, discharged large quantities of vapour. 



Mombficho (4,600 feet), which stands on the same pedestal as Masaj^a, but on 

 the north-west shore of Lake Nicaragua, has long been extinct. But its former 

 energy is attested by the surrounding lava streams and by the Corales, a cluster of 

 eruptive islets encircling its submerged base. 



South-west of Mombacho the volcanic chain is continued in the lake itself, first 

 by Zapatera (2,000 feet), and then by the large twin-crested island of Ometepe 

 that is, the Mexican- Aztec Oine-tepetl, "Two Mountains," 5,360 and 4,200 feet 

 respectively. The summit of Ometepe is crowned by a flooded crater, and on the 

 flank of the mountain is a still larger crater overgrown with dense vegetation. 

 From the top of the mountain a wide prospect is commanded of the whole lake, 

 the narrow isthmus separating it from the Pacific, and the amphitheatre of hills 

 sweejjing round the eastern boiizon. 



West of the two lakes the isthmus constituting Nicaragua proper has also its 

 little coast-range, of moderate elevation and interrupted by numerous gaps. 

 Yenturon, the culminating crest, is only 800 feet high, while the lowest pass 

 scarcely stands more than 25 or 26 feet above the level of the lake, which at the 

 narrowest point is rather less than 13 miles from the Pacific. In many places, 

 the isthmian region is entirely covered b}" the so-called talpetate or tepetate, that is, 

 eruptive matter deposited under the influence of the prevailing south-west trade 



