276 



MEXICO, CENTEAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



Lake Managua, and, farther north, the E/io Negro, which has become the frontier 

 towards Honduras. 



Both of these watercourses have frequently shifted their beds, owing partly to 

 the erupted matter damming up their channels, and forming islands and peninsulas, 

 partly also, perhaps, to seismic disturbances. Since the eruption of Coseguina 

 in 1835 the Rio Negro has changed its course no less than four times, and at 



Fig. 120.- The Nicaeagua WATEEPABTiNa. 

 Scale J : 5,000.000. 



CO Miles. 



present it intermingles its waters with those of the Estero Real in a common 

 delta. 



The most copious river in north Nicaragua flows, under a great diversity of 

 names, from the Matagalpa mountains through the broadest part of the state down 

 to the Atlantic near Cape Gracias-à-Dios. About its sources, within 50 miles of 

 the Pacific, it is known as the Somoro, and lower down successively as the Cabrugal 

 (CabuUal), the Coco (Cocos), Oro (Yoro, Yare), Portillo Liso, Tapacac, Encuentro, 

 Pantasma, Segovia, from a town on its banks, and Gracias, or Cape River, from 

 the low peninsula it h-as formed where it reaches the coast. It also takes the name 



