940 The American Naturahst. fOctwher, 
The language spoken in Honduras is principally Spanish. In the 
territories inhabited by the Mayas and Mosquito Indians various dialects 
ya idiom are encountered. 
Let me commence just here a description of our journey, starting 
from Panama, 
A large coasting-steamer has, after a voyage of seten days, safely 
transferred us from old Panama to the fine and magnificent bay of 
Fonseca, 
Already accustomed to the gigantic and picturesque display of the 
Cordilleras on the Pacific slope, we find in the bay of Fonseca, united 
in the supreme works of Nature, majestic. greatness and idylic 
beauties. A large sheet of blue water of 120 square miles extends before 
our eyes. From its smooth surface rise, in most variegated forms, 
volcanic islands; some covered with tropical vegetation, others as 
barren and torn as if only formed a short time ago in the wild contest 
of fire and water. 
These picturesque groups of islands are dominated by still larger 
cone-shaped mountains. We see afar the volcano de San Miguel, its 
head crowned with black rounded clouds of smoke, which are heaped 
upon each other; closer to us is the famous Cosequina, and in our im- 
mediate neighborhood is the volcano de Sagate, now inactive, a ruin 
of a mountain, which on its ragged and torn surface, even to the pres- 
ent time, is bearing the marks of a terrible struggle between it and 
volcanic agency, The features of death imprinted upon its surface 
seem to have made the whole mountain destitute of animal and vege- 
table life. Our native guide pronounces the mountain to be haunted 
by the “ evil spirit.” 
We cannot but show a badly-concealed smile while listening to a 
sad tale of a still sadder mountain ghost. 
Our offended guide only very reluctantly consents to our proposal 
to hunt for the foe. We soon encountered a number of skeletons 
of animals, and with them his traditional bad spirit in the form of 
carbonic dioxyd or carbonic acid, which exudes from the interior 
through the open crevices of the mountain, and which proves fatal to 
animal life. This is the “ evil spirit” the simple natives talked of. 
Nearly opposite the now inactive volcano Sagate is the flourishing 
island of Tigre, about twenty-two miles in circumference, which forms 
the base of the cone-shaped, inactive volcano Tigre, about 3500 feet 
high, abundantly covered with vegetation. At its foot is the port and 
town of Amapala. 
