aidi-itil Kj»><'li III yt'irii riKjiiii . — ( 'rii ii'fiiril . 'ill 
or tabU'-lnud side of out' of these peaks, on the noithwest niaruin of 
the mesa, tlieie nearly prceipitonslN' l)egins a canon in the gneiss 
].iri(j feet deep and ahont l.oOO feet wide at top and fifty to one 
linnilred across its iisnally dry bed. Near the head of this canon 
and aliont o20 feet below its ridge-like npi)er margin, is an oval- 
roofed cavern thret' to six fei't high, eight to fonrteen feet wide, 
iind extending into the rocky side of the canon in a direction per- 
pendicular to the canons axis for over two hundred feet. This is 
a laccolite. having one of its ends broken or eroded off and this 
open end obscured liy loose rocks. Access to it down from the 
top of the mesa or up fi'om the bottom of the canon is very difti- 
oult. This canon enters the valley on the mesa about one mile 
from its southern margin and then descends in falls, cascades, 
and rapids over the steeply inclined side of the mountain to the 
valley of the Rio Yeijo. For about the first two miles of its 
length, there is no water, save in the Itrief rainy season. The 
small stream in the valley into which this caflon enters fiows 
through or down the Kio Veijo into lake 3Ianagua and thence 
through lake Nicaragua and the Kio San Juan del Norte into the 
Caribbean sea. thus forming in its route an arc of about two- 
thirds of a circle and of sevei-al hundred miles, instead of fiow- 
ing westward from the mouth of the Kio A'eijo. through a Hat 
country, into the Pacific ocean. At the lower end of this canon, 
jis it enters tlie valley of the Kio A'eijo. are numerous hills and 
knolls, many of them having long connected ridges that extend 
far into the valley. Those examined. ;ind })rol>ably all of them, 
are composed of irreguhirly mixed, uiistratified rocks, clays, 
pel)bles and sands, cemented in some places by iron oxides and 
elsewhere but partly liarden(>d. Across this valley, in a crescent 
formed by the Kio A Cijo. is the large deposit of jjctrified V)ones 
of C'enozoic (:tnd possibly some of them Mesozoic) mammals and 
rejjtiles [)i-eviously refei-red to in this i)ai)er. 
Jietween the town of Ocotal and the village of hepilto. eight 
miles distant from each other, in the Departnu'ut of Nueve Seg- 
ovia, at about lat. i:>° :>.')' N. and long. S(;° and '.VI' W.. are 
found such apparent evidences of glaciers' work", as striated 
/!=The late Thomas JJelt, F. K. S., iu hi.s "Naturalist in Nicaragua," 
second edition, declares these to be moraines and considers them indis- 
putable evidences of a (glacial Epoch liere. When I made the examina- 
tion of that locality I did not know that he liad previously been tliere. 
