Juday—Lakes in Central America . 
219 
lake resulted from the damming of an ancient valley by the vol¬ 
canoes which are situated on the south side. This is the only 
portion of the shore that is low and beyond it is San Lucas pass 
through which the lake probably discharged its surplus waters if 
it ever possessed an outlet. 
FIG. 2 .—SKETCH MAP OF LAKE ATITLAN (AFTER MEEK). 
The depths are shown in meters. 
There are a few small affluents chiefly on the north side of the 
lake. The largest stream enters the lake near Jairal and the 
next in size enters near Panajachel. These streams drain small 
valleys that are about 1.5 km. wide and 3 km. to 5 km. long. A 
small hot spring is situated at the village of Atitlan. There is 
no visible outlet. 
The marginal shelf along the edge of the lake is very narrow 
in most places and the bottom has a steep slope, a considerable 
depth of water being found close to the shore. This is shown 
also by the very small delta formations found at the mouths of 
the streams. While these streams are small, the height of the 
adjacent uplands indicates that they have removed a relatively 
large amount of material. 
