TOPOGRAPHY. The Caribbean coast is low and poorly supplied with harbors. It has three ports, none of them adapted for large ships. Grey town, in the delta of the San Juan River, former ly had a splendid harbor with 30 feet. of water at low tide, but during a flood in 1855 the river widened and deepened the Colorado branch of the delta so that most of the river now discharges south of Greytown in Costa Rica, leaving Grey town harbor, which has also been silted by the sea, very shallow. The port of Gracias ft Dios is also shallow. Bluetields, on a large lagoon. is the most important east-eoast port. The Pacific coast is high. and the water is deep close to the shore. The harbor of C'o•into is one of the liest-proteeted ports on the Paeitic, and San Juan del Sur has a small lint deep and safe h:u•hor. Saint Andrews, Old Providence. and Great and Little Corn islands, near the Carib bean coast, are centres of banana and cocoanut growing.
Geographically Nicaragua is divided into dis tinct zones by two chains of inountains, Which, more or less broken, and with numerous flanking spurs, traverse the Republic in a north west and southeast direction parallel with the Pacific coast. The western or coast range is a part of the mountain system extending through most of Central America. In Nicaragua it is only ten to twenty miles from the Pac•itic, and its nearness to the ocean accounts for the fact that no considerable streams discharge from that slope into the Pacific. This western range, with the depressed plain icing between it and the eastern range, forms the principal line of volcanic energy and is marked by a 'mintier of extinct and active volcanoes built up by outpouring lava. None of them reaches 7000 feet above sea level. Masaya (2972 feet) was violently active at. different periods Erin the time of the Spanish Conquest until 1772, when a vast mass of lava was ejected from its crater, covering a tract of land eight miles long by two wide. It was dormant between 1801 and May. 1902. when it resumed activity. Coscguina (over 3000 feet) had a terrific eruption period in 1835, but has since been inactive. The Spaniards founded the city of Leon Viejo at the foot of :%fontotombo, hut the crow ion of 1009 so alarmed the citizens that they removed en masse 23 miles from the town they had founded and established new Leon on its present site. In recent years this voleano has ejected dust and scoria without inflicting dam age. Other well-known voleanie summits are Telica. Las Titus, Mombaeho. Zapatera, Ometepe, etc. The severe earthquakes recorded in Nica ragua are associated with its volcanic phenomena.
The eastern range enters Nicaragua from Donduras and extends in a general southeastern direction to the coast north of the San Juan River. about 50 miles from its mouth. It sends out numerous spun•s toward the Caribbean, be tween which flow the many rivers of the coun try. Between the eastern and western ranges lies the great interior basin, about 300 miles long 100 miles wide. where the population and industries are in great part centred. chiefly near the west shores. or it little to the north and west of the two great lakes of the country. The dominating topographic features are thus the wide. low, rolling plain of the east. interspersed with mountains and spurs. and, toward the northwest, with highlands; the two cordilleras: the depressed plain between them with its two large lakes: and the steep, narrow Pacifie slope.
IlvtuountAenv. In the plain o• basin between the ranges are two large lakes. Managua and Nicaragua, connected by the river Tipitapa and collecting the drainage of the basin, which has an area of about 12,000 square miles. The larger lake, Nicaragua, comprises over 3000 square miles, and is 110 miles long. Its longer axis is parallel with the Pacific, from which it is only eleven miles distant at the nearest point. It is front 12 to 200 feet deep. with its surface about 106 feet above the sea-level. It receives the waters of the shallower Lake Managua (32 miles long ny 10 wide). The waters of these lakes are carried to the Caribbean by the San Juan River, whieh has an average width of 1500 feet, and a minimum dis charge of about 10,000 cubic feet per second. Its course is 120 miles, and it is navigable for small d•auglht steamers except at a few- rapids, which offer obstruction in the dry season. The river has recently played little part in the commerce of the country, lint in the construction of the Nicaragua Canal it was proposed to use its wa fers for many miles. The other rivers are mainly to the north of the San Juan, east of the moun tain ranges, and drain the wide. forested plain. important among them are the Segovia or Wanks, about 300 miles in length, but with a narrow drainage basin, which does not carry a volume of water proportionate to its length: the Rio Grande, about 230 miles long. navigable for small vessels for 100 miles from the sea if a chan nel were cut through its bar; and the Muertelds River, navigable for 05 miles. its banks lined with banana plantations, whose crop is carried on the river to Bluefields for shipment to the United States, The Pacific coast rivers are nn important.