THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA. 7 
of from five to fifteen miles. In Nicaragua the ridges 
slope towards the southwest, breaking abruptly to the 
Mosquito coast, and an important part of its territory is 
occupied by the lakes of Managua and Nicaragua. From 
the broad valley the land again rises towards Costa Rica, 
where it attains the height of forty-three hundred feet, 
and, owing to the narrowness of the continent, the lat¬ 
eral branches are insignificant. From the table-land of 
Yeragua the cordillera dwindles to the basaltic ridge of 
Panama. 
Rivers are, next to mountains, the most important 
factors in the physical aspect of the land; and in 
Central America they are abundant, though, from the 
broken nature of the country, not of great size. From 
the position of the backbone of the land, most of the 
watershed is towards the Gulf of Mexico and the Carib¬ 
bean Sea; even the great lakes of Nicaragua, which are 
really on the Pacific side, empty through the Rio San 
Juan into the Atlantic, the river taking advantage of a 
break in the cordillera. The lower or navigable portion 
of the Central American rivers is the only part known, 
the sources of even the largest streams are still un 
explored. So tortuous are the courses that names are 
multiplied, and rivers that flow from inhabited valleys 
through wild forests again appear in the lowlands as 
unknown strangers; and the river that one traveller 
describes as important and navigable, because he sees 
it in the season of rain, the next visitor may cross knee- 
deep, and know only as a brook. 
On the Pacific side may be mentioned the Rio Lempa, 
which rises near Esquipulas, receives the waters of the 
considerable Lago de Guija (on the boundary of Guate- 
