•3Ut» JJn'Alinricflll (rtnlnt/lsf. Nov.inli.r, IHDl 
f'areful obsorvors will note the importauce of tlio iireator ultimate 
reservoir, containing twenty or more lakes, at an elevation above lake 
Itasca. These lakes im pre innate tlie eartii with water and nuuierous 
flowing streams al)()und as a natural result, Itasca lake and Klk lake 
each drawing its supply from above with the following difference in 
peculiarity: Itasca lake receives all the waters flowing down from the 
summits, Avhile Elk lake receives and discharges less than one-half. 
The creeks entering Elk lake are completely frozen in winter and have 
been found to be dry in summer. 
EVIDENCES OF A GLACIAL EPOCH IN NIC- 
ARAGUA-. 
J?v J. C'UAW Kolil). M;ili;i^ll:i. N irMlM'_'Il.'l. 
None of tlu' mountain ranges in Nicaragua rise to the altitiuk* 
of the frost-liue, and only four have peaks whose highest apexas 
ure "6,500 (one 6,700) feet above the Pacific. Tlie average alti- 
tude of the Cerros in this country is aVtout 2,SO0 feet, and would 
not awaken a suspicion tliat any of tliese mountains liad ever 
been deeply covered witli ice. At the present time tlie night 
temperature on the summits of the Ccrro Pena Jilanca during the 
season when the trade winds are moving eastward, is frecpiently 
as low as 12° Cent., and occasionally 8° Cent. 
The western or lake region of Nicaragua, the oidy i)art alunit 
the geology of which anything relialtle has, until recently, been 
known. api)cars to have l»een foimed of materials ejected from 
A'olcanoes which were active during all of the (Quaternary, and at 
least parts of the Tertiary and of the llecent epocht. 
JJut we lind /*ittii.s s^Ircsfris and some other cold climali' coni- 
fers, dwarlish or attaining medium size, on some of the highest 
mountains of northern Nicaragua, and retaining, with some mod- 
ifications, the distinctive features of their more northern types. 
In at least one valley of those Cerros is a large dejiosit of the 
petrified bones of Tertiary, and pro])ably earlier period mammals 
and reptiles, as Elephas, Ursula, Marlidinxhis. I'tc. and across 
that valleyj, at the foot of a canon, are small hills, having long 
*The publication of this .•irticle, i't>c<>iv(>(l in Murch Inst, liiis Ihmmi niiiivoidably di-laji'd. 
tl have not found "Miocene sands." "Pliocene gastroijods,'' nor other 
evidences of the ^Miocene in western XicaragUii, such as have been 
described by others as occurrloi;' ttiere. See l*roceedin<rs of the Victoria 
Institute, 187G. 
+The valley of Sel)aco, lat. ]'2 40 X., long. S.j 58' AV. The petrified 
bones are 50 to 100 feet beneath the surface, in sand and partly hardened 
sediment. 
