84 SUMMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN. Book I. 
The view from the summit is very grand, and, though 
of quite a different character, may well be compared with 
that from the top of Mount Righi. In the vicinity are the 
summits of the other cones of the Maribios, from the Mo- 
motombo to the Viejo. Behind the former a portion of 
the Lake of Managua appears. The country farther to 
the east was lost in the indistinct colour of distance. To 
the west the eye found no horizon to rest upon — no line of 
demarcation between the Pacific ocean and the atmosphere 
being discernible. It was a view into empty space. The 
line of the sea-coast, however, was well defined in this direc- 
tion. The eye could follow its course as far as the plain 
of Leon is not separated from the sea by intervening hills. 
Several small rivers, emptying themselves into the ocean, 
and bright little bays are seen shining between dark- 
wooded headlands. Along the northern side of the pano- 
rama runs the mountain chain, or rather terrace, of 
Matagalpa and New Segovia, separating the low-lands of 
Nicaragua from the table-lands to the north and north- 
east. Along the line of its foot, in the plain of the Estero 
Real — that long, narrow branch of the Gulf of Fonseca 
which extends in a south-easterly direction towards the 
north-western corner of the Lake of Managua — a number 
of diminutive cones are seen, leaving the impression of a 
row of mole-hills. The country around the south-western 
base of the mountain appears as one single forest, inter- 
rupted by nothing but a few bright spots where some 
streamlet expands sufficiently to produce a reflection of 
light from its surface. A few red specks marked the tile- 
roofs of Leon. 
Though the summit of the mountain is now bare of * 
trees, there is no doubt that in a former time pines have 
grown on it. The forest of the lower region, with the 
