The delta-shaped area of all the east-flowing rivers forms the third division. It comprises about 15,000 square miles, or 75 miles from east to west and about 200 miles from north to south on the seacoast. This part of the coast has subsided until within the past few years, and the ancient coast line was formerly far to the eastward of its present position. Recently, its elevation appears to have recommenced. Formerly, corals grew nearly into the mouths of the rivers Matagalpa, Escondido, and others. Now, the tops of their branches are dead, and the muddy river waters that killed them are distinguishable several miles seaward. The fourth division lies on the western side of the first. It has for its western limit the foot of the mountain ridges which extend to near the margin of lakes Nicaragua and Managua, and extends from the lakes northwestward to about latitude 13° 15′ north. Formations of the following ages occur in this as well as in the second division:

Recent. Submerged forests, clay, peat, marl, volcanic tufas, stratified sand and ashes, and uncompacted volcanic ashes.

Pleistocene.-Terrace beaches and deposits, metamorphosed rock-walled gulches, erratic bowlders, striated rocks, moraines, volcanic tufas and agglomerates, and alluvial conglomerates.

Pliocene.-Lignites, loams, and flinty shingle.

Miocene.-Greenish marly limestones, clay, fresh-water marly limestone, and

sandstones.

Eocene.-Limestones, clay, fresh-water marly limestones, and sandstones. Mesozoic.-Oölitic flinty limestones, conglomerates and slates, bluish marly clays, greenish sandstones, pebbly sandstones, gypsum, salt beds, bituminous earths, and marls.

Fermian.-Magnesian limestones, variegated shales, red sandstones, and

lignite.

Carboniferous.-Coal, mostly anthracite in character, sandstone, and lime

stone.

There are ancient volcanic fissures in this division, but the rocks filling them are rapidly disintegrating. They are not distinctly outlined in many places, but are partly covered by eruptions from

more recent volcanoes.

Several large springs, having a tem

perature of 158° to 212° F., flow from the foot of the mountains in the northwestern part of this division. They usually contain large percentages of alkalis. This division is very interesting, and wonderfully varied in its stratification, lithology, mineralogy, and mineral springs.

The fifth division embraces the northwestern and southwestern parts of Nicaragua, including lakes Nicaragua and Managua, which were once part of the Cenozoic ocean; also several small lakes in the craters of extinct volcanoes. Some of these contain pure or slightly alkaline water, as Masaya, Apoyo, Tiscapa, etc. Others contain large amounts of sulphur and alkalis, as Nejapa (which gives iodine reactions and possesses in a remarkable degree the property of preserving and strengthening animal membrane, tissues, etc.), Asososca, and others. The northwestern part of this division extends to near the Gulf of Fonseca.

Its rocks

are paleozoic. It is intersected by many lodes, generally running from northeast to southwest, which contain gold as the principal metal, but those passing into granite rocks, or between granite and gneiss and shales, have as their principal metal silver, tin, or The manganese. of all these veins is quartz and maggangue nesian slates, and their walls are granite or gneiss, or one of these on one side and shales on the other, excepting a few of the goldbearing veins, which have walls of diabase or diorite. Some of the most valuable mineral veins in the southern part of this division have been largely faulted and disturbed.

The western and southwestern parts of this division, with the exception of a few low hills, are composed to great depths of matter ejected from the line of volcanic fissures and cones which pass through or appear above it. On this erupted mass, are situated all the large towns and cities in Nicaragua excepting Matagalpa and Jinotega; and more than seven-tenths of the population of the country reside in the towns, fertile valleys, and mountain slopes of

this vicinity. In several places, the darker and more easily melted minerals, basalt, dolorite, andesite, and black scoriæ have been transported by water to greater distances from the volcanoes than the lighter-colored and more acidic minerals, pumice, obsidian, trachyte, light-colored scoriæ, and rhyolite.

MINES AND MINING LAWS.

The northern part of this division, in the department of Segovia, contains many mines, and some that were once famous; and there is no doubt that, under conditions of peace and good government, the influx of capital and labor will, before long, make this one of the richest mining regions in Central America. Chontales is a very rich mining district, where mines are now in active operation which have contributed in no small degree to augment the wealth of the Republic. Matagalpa is also

very rich in minerals, requiring only capital and improved means of transportation to develop a great mining interest.

The code of mining laws of Nicaragua is a very voluminous document, forming a book of 112 pages, published in the year 1877. It is based upon the old Spanish mining laws, but is very liberal in its provisions.

The most important part of this Code (Código de minería) was published in English in the chapter "Nicaragua," of Bulletin No. 40, of the Bureau of the American Republics, "Mines and Mining Laws of Latin America". This chapter is reprinted in full, at the end of this Hand Book, as Appendix D.

Mining machinery is admitted free of duty, and there are no taxes, either government or municipal, levied on mines. There is no distinction between foreigners and natives in the right to acquire and hold mining property.

Señor Don José D. Gamez, in his "Noticias Geográficas de la República de Nicaragua," which the Nicaraguan Government sent the Bureau of the American Republics to aid in the prepara

tion of this Hand Book, refers to the mines of Nicaragua in the following terms:

In the whole of Central America the only country which goes ahead of Nicaragua, as far as mineral wealth is concerned, is the Republic of Honduras.

The vast mountain system which extends to the Atlantic coast, although almost unexplored in this respect, is the great mining region of the country; but independently of it there are the districts of Nueva Segovia and Chontales, which have become celebrated for the gold they yield in abundant quantities.

The mines thus far discovered are very valuable; but the mining industry has not developed in proportion, because of the lack of capital, skilled labor, and convenient means of transportation. This is the reason why few mines have been worked up to this date; but those which have been worked, most of which belong to foreigners, are yielding large profits.

The famous silver

At present only gold mines are worked in Nicaragua. mines, which gave such fabulous yieldings in the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth centuries, are no longer in operation. They require larger expenses and a greater knowledge of the subject.

The gold mines of Chontales yield from one-fourth to 2 ounces of gold, from 14 to 20 carats, per ton of 2,000 English pounds of ore. Those of Nuevo Segovia yield from one-half to 3 ounces of gold per ton.

The bad roads of the department of Nueva Segovia render the introduction of mining machinery very difficult, and for this reason no mine which yields less than 1 ounce of gold per ton of ore is worked with profit. Every town, every hill, every mountain, and almost every river in this department, contains gold, or gold and silver, or copper, tin, zinc, antimony, or other metals. Samples of these metals and ores commanded the attention of the world at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. * * *

The total production of gold in Nicaragua can be estimated at 22,754 ounces per year.

Chapter III.

CLIMATE AND SEASONS.

It is a common error among persons unacquainted with the country to suppose that Nicaragua, being, geographically, a tropical country, must suffer from excessive heat, and consequently, is unhealthy for people of northern origin. The truth is that, while on the low lands of the coast and forests of the plains the climate is tropical, in the higher regions it is varied and temperate.

Situated between two great oceans, the country enjoys an insular regularity of temperature, while the absence of mountains toward the Atlantic coast and the broad expanse of its lakes permit the trade winds to sweep across the country and ventilate it so thoroughly as to produce a climate agreeable to the senses and favorable to health.

There are in Nicaragua only two seasons-the wet, called by the natives winter, and the dry, called summer-but on the Atlantic side these seasons are not so well defined. The time of commencement and ending of these varies according to locality. On the eastern coast, the rainy season is from June to December, inclusive; on the Pacific slope the rains commence about the 15th of May and continue until the 15th of November. The climate of th Caribbean coast is much more humid than that of the Pacific side of the mountains. The amount of precipitation at San Juan del Norte during the past year was 29.7 inches. This heavy rainfall and humidity of the atmosphere are largely attributable to the dense forests. As the country is cleared and brought