Oltlcidl J\jKn-]i in X'tcil lUKIiiil . ( 'rilii't'onl . 
:;<i' 
connected ridoes composed, so tar us examined, of iriejiularly 
mixed angular and rounded rocks of various sizes, together with 
smooth and rougli-edged pel)1)les. clays and sands. 
As we look from the valley of silicified l)ones. across the un- 
assorted deposits, up the canon, and along the sides of the 
mountains to the dwarfed pine trees growing l>etween the rocks 
on the crest of the Cerros. we are led to inquire how and when 
these habitants of a colder climate were introduced to this half 
temperate, half tropical latitude, and when and how this canon 
Avas excavated and the unassorted deposits were fcn'uied only a few 
miles beyond its lower end. • The facts se«m to indicate a greatly 
increased elevation and a much colder climate at some former 
epoch. 
In 188(1 and "!H), during reconnaissance conducted for the 
government of Nicaragua, the writer discovered evidences which, 
taken in connection with others previously discovered, strongly 
indicate a Griacial epoch in this country, synchronous with that of 
the United States and Canada. 
8ome of these evidences are here presented. 
On the top of the monogenetic series of mountains known in 
various parts of its extent as C'erro Yalli, Cerro Jenotega. and 
Cerro Pena lilanca. following an irregularly sinuous line from 
about lat. i:!° 25' N. and long. 87° W. to about i:-i° :)0' X. and 
84° 55' AV.*, are several mesas, the largest, but not the highest, 
of Avhich, is near the eastern termination of the series, antl is 
uamed Mesa Turcos. The top of this mesa has an area of about 
twenty stiuare miles of metamorphic rocks, granite or gneiss pre- 
dominating, across which, and diverging nearly at right angles. 
are three shallow valleys, each about one miU' wide. They begin 
near the centre of the mesa and gradually widen and deepen till 
they reach its nearly perpendicular sides. One. which extends 
southeastward, is the hydrographic area for the largei- number of 
*A11 these bearings arc magnetic. Tliis mouutaia sj^stem is south of 
that supposed to l)e referred to in Prestwich's (xeology, edition of lf<8G. 
vol. 1, p. :*!)4, and designated "No. i."), System of Segovia. Coseciuina 
and Cape Gracia-a-Dios." Coseriuina is a volcano on a point of land 
which it has formed that projects into the Pacific ocean at the bay of 
Fonseca, and could never have formed part of the movnitain system 
evidentlj" referred to in the excellent work quoted. That system ex- 
tends from lat. 1:5 22 N., and long. 87 ~V W. northt'iistirurd toward tlie 
Culf of ^[e.xico and terminates about lat. 14 ijO' N. and long. 84 Wl , 
maiTuetic. 
