bird constitutes, however, the essential feature of Nicaraguan lake scenery, and is to be seen soaring, without any perceptible motion of its wings, high above the surface of the water. There are two kinds here, corresponding to two different species of tachypetes, or fregata. The Spanish name, tijereta, is derived from tijera-a pair of scissors-designating the two long feathers in the tail of the bird. From Granada it is proposed to carry a railway to Managua, on the lake of same name; thence deviating slightly to the west, to avoid the only range of hills on the whole section, skirting Leon, and ending at Port Realejo, on the Pacific. A few miles north of Granada a swampy lagoon, which is a mere morass in the dry weather, begins and follows the shores of the lake for some distance. This is Lake Songozana of Oveido, the historian of Nicaragua, having misled Squiers by saying it was "al sur" of the great lake, which he calls Cocibolca, and which Squiers translated to the south instead of towards the South Sea, or Pacific. In Oveido's time this lagoon was full of 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 crocodiles have become more scarce. Large snakes are, however, still to be met with, as also innumerable water-fowl. Few of the snakes, it is to be observed, are poisonous in Nicaragua. A beautiful kind of the coral-snake is an exception. A species of rattlesnake is also met with, but rarely. Two kinds of snakes are, however, said to be particularly dangerous in the coast region near Greytown, and in the woods of the San Juan River, one of them called the Culebra tobova, the other the Vibora de Sangre. But this cannot be compared with the danger from venomous reptiles in Texas, New Mexico, and other southern and western parts of the Union. In some tracts along the Rio Grande a rattlesnake may be seen every few hundred paces, and at San Antonio, in Texas, no summer passes without some persons dying from the bite of the moccasin. Managua, the seat, at one time, of the Nicaraguan legislature, is a town of twelve or thirteen thousand inhabitants, in a splendid situation on an elevated portion of the shore of the lake of the same name. The road hence to Tipitapa to the eastward, and in the line by which the projected complete line of railway will approach Managua, leads through the woods close to the lake, but without an opening to allow a view of it. Tipitapa is situated on the channel connecting the Lake of Nicaragua with that of Managua, but which was dried up by an earthquake in 1844. Between this place and the lagoon of Songozana is a plain overgrown with shrubs, tenanted by monkeys, parrots, macaws, curassows, pigeons, and other birds. The Rio and Salto, or "Fall" of Tipitapa, had not, when Froebel visited it, a drop of water, but he does not deny that water may flow over it in the rainy season. As to the Estero Panaloya, the same competent authority considers it as merely a narrow branch of Lake Nicaragua. The Lake of Managua is very shallow, and is said to rest on a horizontal sheet of lava. There are several hot springs in the neighbourhood of Tipitapa, some of which are sulphureous, as also cold springs and pools of water. Froëbel was about to bathe in one of these, when he saw some small crocodiles rise from the bottom. On a rock in the midst of the same pool sat a repulsive-looking iguana lizard, of the size of a boy ten years old. "Our Lord of Esquipalas" has a sanctuary at Tipitapa, and on the days of pilgrimage the place has the aspect of a gay and crowded fair. Between Managua and Mateares a peninsula projects into the lake. It is formed of steep and wooded hills. The road takes the straight line, by passing over the neck by which the peninsula is joined to the mainland. It then descends gradually towards Mateares, passing through an open forest of scattered trees, with an undergrowth of shrubs, clad with yellow, pink, or violet flowers. The railway would, we have seen, take a direction west of these steep wooded hills. Strata of lignite, or tertiary coal, are found in the region between Mateares and the Pacific. This is more particularly a feature in the geology of the Pacific side of Central America, and in the State of Salvador this tertiary coal formation is said to have a sufficient development to promise a certain degree of future importance. Samples of lignite from the neighbourhood of Leon were of a greyish-black colour, rather hard, with the texture of wood clearly visible. On being burnt, a considerable quantity of ashes were left, in some cases of a white, in others of a red colour. The road from Mateares to Nagarote, another station on the projected railway, is said to be most interesting. For a time it leads along under the shade of gigantic trees, while the eye passes over the lake and rests on the mountains of Matagalpa and the peaks of the Maribios, beginning with the island of Monotombito, celebrated for its Aztec idols. Next comes the noble cone of the Monotombo, above seven thousand feet high, from whose summit a thin cloud of steam rises scarcely traceable in the pure atmosphere. Other mountains follow behind. At certain places the road, still following the shore of the lake, passes over small tracts of loose sand, overgrown with shrubs of the mimosa, which yields a gum like gumarabic, and which, from the exquisite odour of its yellow catkins, bears the name of aroma. Nagarote is a mere village, formerly of bad reputation, and the road passes thence through a forest to Pueblo Nuevo, another station on the railway, and a place of some consideration. The streets are lined with rows of the columnar cactus, or organos, the houses standing back in the court-yards formed by these natural walls. The first part of the road from Pueblo Nuevo to Leon leads again through the woods, amid which may be heard the call of the chachalagua, a kind of wild-fowl or pheasant, common throughout the hot regions of Mexico and Central America, which crosses with the domestic fowl, and produces hybrids, of which the males are highly valued as fighting-cocks. As the road approaches Leon, the capital of Nicaragua, the country opens, and a beautiful plain, well cultivated with maize, expands before the sight. To the left a ridge of wooded hills borders the sea-coast; to the right is the chain of volcanic peaks before alluded to. Leon is one of the largest cities of Central America, and is said to have a population of thirty thousand inhabitants. But it is very difficult to form an opinion as to the real amount of population, as even from the roof of the cathedral the suburbs cannot be seen in their whole extent, and, as at Granada, the scattered houses of the outer parts are hidden in a forest of trees, and between thickets of shrubbery. Within the city itself a great many of the houses are in ruins, from the effects of the long and desperate struggles of which Leon has been the theatre during the civil wars of the country. The cathedral-a large and well-constructed stone building, with a massive cupola and roof-is one of the most distinguished works of architecture in Spanish America. The view from the roof is magnificent, and ranges over the most beautiful scenes. Round a large area the red roofs of the houses are seen here and there peeping out between trees of the most luxuriant growth, whilst the plain beyond is occupied by an immense forest, occasionally broken by fields of maize extensively and carefully cultivated. In a westerly and north-westerly direction that of the railway-the plain slopes gradually down to the coast of the Pacific, without any intervening hills. This is not the case towards the south, where the north-western termination of a range of hills running close to the sea-coast is seen. Towards the north and the east the whole line of volcanic cones, from the Viejo to the Momotombo, rise in strange regularity of form, so as to appear more like gigantic works of art than natural mountains. The population of the suburbs of Leon is, as at Granada, mostly Indian; that of Subtiaba, which is considered a suburb, but is more a town by itself, is entirely so, and has even preserved its Indian language. In some respects Granada is more civilised than Leon, the latter city having preserved more of the original Central American life than Granada, where the influence of foreigners and foreign mercantile connexions has been much greater. Granada, moreover, is chiefly a commercial town, and in its population the "bourgeois" character predominates, whilst Leon represents the allied interests of a landed aristocracy, and of a very active and determined democracy. The regular road from Granada to Leon passes through Masaya, a considerable town, with a very active Indian population in its suburbs; the Indians of Masaya enjoy, indeed, a very high reputation throughout Nicaragua for their skill, taste, and application. More luxuriant plantain gardens and finer fruit-trees cannot be seen than at this place. All the fences are living hedges of wild pine-apple. Beyond is Nindiri, a large Indian village, its little thatched huts built with great regularity in rectangular streets, with plantain gardens behind. Most of these are situated in the shade of orange, mango, and other fruit-trees, and half concealed by groups of the most exquisite ornamental flowers, whilst the tallest cocoa-palms gently waft their crowns above them. Brown girls with smiling faces stand in the doorways, greeting the passing traveller in a friendly way. From Leon to Realejo, on the Pacific, the broad plain of the interior is, as we have before observed, entirely open. This port has been surveyed by order of the British Admiralty, by Captain Sir Edward Belcher in 1838, and by Captain C. A. Cleveland in 1860, and it presents everything that can be desired in the shape of a harbour. The terminus is proposed to be at Castanon Point, at the foot of a bluff known as Mount Doña Paula. Between Castanon Bluff on the one side and Cardon Island is a passage or channel known as that of Barra Falsa, which is narrow, with a depth of from four to five fathoms, and leading to shallows beyond; but to the north is Cardon Channel, wider, with deep water, and which appears to be always available. It is proposed, we have observed, to carry the ultimate complete line of railway round the north-east side of the lake to Managua, and thus avoid the breaking of bulk in the navigation of the lake. This portion of the line would lie in the district of Chontales, a name given to the country that extends from the shores of the lake to the table-land of Upper Mosquitia. The chief town is Acopaya, which, including the farms of the surrounding country, has a population of two thousand six hundred inhabitants. The town is situated on a little hill, at the foot of which a river flows under the shade of large trees. Juigalpa is another town of minor importance, situated at the foot of one of the highest mountains in the district-about five thousand feet high, steep and rocky, and the greater part covered with forest. The country around has, however, the reputation of being rich in gold; but the produce of a mine newly opened and examined by Froebel proved to be iron pyrites, more or less auriferous. This was also the case with a reputed gold mine visited by the same naturalist on the Pacific side of the lake. It is certain, however, that many gold mines exist in this region, more especially east of Juigalpa and north of Acopaya. The Indians bring gold in quills for sale at these towns. Opals are also found, as in Honduras, the Cerro de Martinez east of Acopaya being a principal locality. The chief wealth of the province lies, however, in its pastures, and in the cattle, horses, and mules raised on them. Mules, hides, and cheese are the articles of export. The valleys of this region are hotter and less healthy than the shores of the lake, while the table-land beyond is healthier than both regions. The country is rich in game of all sorts. Manatis and fish abound in the rivers, tapirs in the thickets on the banks; deer, cavias, rabbits, pheasants, curassows, partridges, quails, pigeons, and wild-fowl are met with everywhere in the bush, on the savanas, or in the marshes. The curassows, of which there are three species, of the size of a small turkey, are said to be the most delicate wild-fowl that exists. The lower and marshy country near the lake is covered with tracts of forest and extensive jicarales or woods of calabashtrees. The mahogany-tree, "the king of the forest," is found chiefly in the marshes of the Atlantic coast; and the cedar also favours valleys, as does also the gigantic silk cotton-tree, from the trunks of which boats are hollowed out. The long-leaved or pitch-pine covers all the more elevated portion of the upland. Regular slopes and terraces are likewise met with on some of the hills, indicating the sites of the villages and strongholds of the Indians of old. A shrub or little tree, like a dwarf oak, bearing red berries, which eat like cranberries, and the bark of which is used for tanning, prevails to such an extent as to determine the aspect of the vegetation on the whole western side of Chontales. It is called Nancite. Thickets of bamboo and of a diminutive palm-tree called supa abound in the beds of torrents. The latter bears clusters of nuts, which, when roasted, have a taste very like chesnuts. The edge of the table-land is a beautiful park-like country, with green prairies, clusters of trees, and little groves. The air of the table-land is cool and refreshing; here or there in the distance a house or hut is discernible, while herds of cows and horses are seen grazing in the plain in all directions. There are numerous springs in this region, mostly marked by the presence of bamboo and supa palms, and in a circuit of not many miles in diameter a river is formed, on which the canoes of the Mosquito Indians can pass down to Bluefields. The so-called Caribs of the Mosquito territory and of British Honduras are, as is well known, of West Indian origin, having been transplanted, in 1796, from the island of St. Vincent to Ruatan, and afterwards to Honduras, whence they have spread over the whole extent of coast from Cape Gracias to Belize. But the Chontales appear to be of a different race-the name itself is of Aztec origin, although their features partake more of the broad Mongolic than of the sharper type of the Aztec and Chorotegan races. Their language is that of the Woolwas tribes-the old Chondal language of Oveido and the Woolwas are of the Leuca race-a race which is spread all over Mosquitia and a part of Honduras. The savanas of this table-land are green throughout the year, there being no such distinction as that of a dry and a wet season, or of summer and winter. The temperature is always mild, and a due proportion of sunshine and rain prevails at all periods. Gigantic trees are scattered here and there over these prairies, affording shades to which the herds repair during the noontide heat. There is a small place called San Ubaldo on the western shores of the lake, whence boats are taken in going from Acoyapa to Granada. This would be a station on the complete line of railway. Altogether, a fair and reasonable consideration of the circumstances of the case, and especially of the character of the country, lead us to the conviction that not only does the projected Nicaraguan Railway present great advantages, especially in a salubrious point of view, as a Îine of transit, but it also presents pre-eminent advantages to the European settler, whilst it opens an already populous and productive country to commerce and civilisation. EVENING IN THE TOWER OF LONDON. BY NICHOLAS MICHELL. FORT, prison, palace! 'mid thy towers we wander, Since the proud Conqueror laid these strong foundations, The Traitor's Gate-through these now silent portals |