Chap. III. THE LAKE — THE LAGOON. 39 
extensive morass, with deep waterholes half overgrown with 
reeds ; when the rains prevail it fills with water, which by 
one or more outlets empties into the lake. At that period 
numbers offish pass through these channels from the lake 
into the lagoon. I have not the slightest doubt that this 
is the lake Songozana of which Oviedo speaks in his history 
of Nicaragua. Mr. Squier, who, in his interesting work on 
Nicaragua, gives the translation of a passage from Oviedo 
in reference to this item of Nicaraguan geography, seems 
to have misunderstood an expression of that author. When 
Oviedo says : " from the lake Cocibolca (i. e. the lake of 
Nicaragua) towards the south is the little lake Songozana' 
— this seems to be in utter contradiction to the situation of 
the lagoon, but " towards the south" — " at sur" — with 
reference to this passage, means towards the South Sea, just 
as "San Juan del Sur" means San Juan on the South 
Sea, or on the Pacific ; and by this interpretation every 
difficulty as to the meaning of Oviedo disappears. In 
Oviedo's time this lagoon was full of alligators, or rather 
crocodiles, and the country around was infested by black 
panthers and other savage animals, which greatly annoyed 
the first Spanish settlers. At present the panthers have 
disappeared, and the crocodiles have become more scarce ; 
but the sportsman will always find an almost incredible 
variety and number of the most interesting waterfowl, 
such as ducks, teal, a most beautiful species of small brown 
geese, waterhens, jacanas, snipes, plovers, herons, spoon- 
bills, flamingoes, a gigantic species of tantalus, and many 
others. 
On one of my excursions to this locality, turning my 
horse from the shore of the lake towards the swamp, I 
hit upon a boa snake, which after I had killed it proved 
to be only nine feet in length, but unusually thick in 
