Juday—Lakes in Central America . 
217 
southeast. It is irregular in outline. The maximum length is 
about 13 km., and the maximum width, about 4 km. The mini¬ 
mum width is less than half a kilometer. The encroachment of 
the land on the north side has narrowed the lake very much a 
little east of its middle thus separating it into two basins. At 
the narrowest part the lake is crossed by the Ferrocarril Central 
de Guatemala and the resort station called Laguna is situated 
on the south shore in this locality. 
FIG. 1—SKETCH MAP OF LAKE AMATITLAN (AFTER MEEK). 
The depths are shown in meters. 
The somewhat smaller, eastern portion has a maximum depth 
of about 29 m. and the western portion, about 34 m. 
The bottom of the lake is uniform and presents a rather nar¬ 
row marginal shelf; beyond this the slope is rather steep. 
The chief affluent, and in fact the only permanent stream en¬ 
tering the lake, is the Lobos river. Along the south side and 
at the east end of the lake there are several warm or hot springs, 
the largest and hottest one being found at Laguna. The water 
of the latter is hot enough to boil eggs, about six minutes time 
being required for soft boiled eggs. 1 The waters contributed by 
these hot springs affect the temperature of the lake water only a 
few meters from the shore and then only at the surface. The 
surplus waters leave the lake at the western end through the 
Michatoya river which flows into the Pacific ocean. 
The transparency of the water was rather low, a Secchi’s disc 
10 cm. in diameter disappearing from view at a depth of 2.75 m. 
1 Meek, loc. cit., p. 167. 
