105 
Chap. VII.—B. S.] ARRIVAL AT LIBERTAD. 
just too far to walk, and so the bulk of the Mana- 
guans wash and bathe in the lake.* 
A ride of three days from Managua, by way of 
Tipitapa and Juigalpa, brought me to Chontales, the 
finest and most fertile district of Nicaragua. Ap¬ 
proaching it from the west, as I did, you find your¬ 
self amongst rich undulating grass lands, which even 
at the end of the dry season retain their verdure and 
afford pasture to thousands of heads of cattle. On 
nearing Libertad, the ground becomes more elevated, 
the climate considerably cooler, and you get occa¬ 
sional glimpses of the Lake of Granada, with its 
islands and majestic volcanoes. Libertad is rapidly 
rising to the dignity of a town, and is now full of 
people from all parts. House-room is very limited, 
and I had difficulty in finding even a place for my 
hammock. Close to Libertad commences a dense vir¬ 
gin forest, which extends to the Atlantic seaboard, 
* “ At seventeen miles from Tipitapa, and one mile and one-eighth 
from the city of Managua, is the Lake of Tiscapa, which is circular, 
a quarter of a mile in diameter, surrounded by almost perpendicular 
cliffs, 80 feet high, and has every appearance of being the crater of 
an extinct volcano. It has no outlet; but its water is on the same 
level as Lake Managua, although its depth, as I ascertained by sound¬ 
ing, was 150 feet in the centre. Its water, of which the specific 
gravity is 13, is highly charged with sulphuretted hydrogen, and, like 
that of Tipitapa, contains neither muriates nor sulphates. The pro¬ 
portion of sulphuretted hydrogen in the atmosphere contiguous to the 
lake varies considerably, the disagreeable smell being at times almost 
intolerable. A curious fact in connection with this lake is the almost 
constant presence of a large quantity of dead fish on its margin, which 
attracts a number of turkey-buzzards.”— Capt. Bedford Pirn’s Paper 
“ On the Mineral and Thermal Waters of Nicaragua,” read before the 
British Association, at Bath, in 1864. 
