Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1889 — LAKE NICARAGUA. [ARTICLE]

LAKE NICARAGUA.

A Beautiful Sheet of Water a Hundred Mlle* In Lencth. Lake Nicaragua (whose native name was Cocibalca) is one of the most beautiful as well as remarkable sheets of fresh water in the known world, says a letter in the Philadelphia Record. One hundred miles long by from thirty to fifty miles wide, its elevation above the Pacific—from which it is separated only by n low range of hills, which atone point dwindle down to a height of forty-eight feet above the lake itself—is about 100 feet, Ils banks are b autifully wooded with some ofXfhe noblest trees of the far-famed Nicaraguan forests and under them to Nicaragua City winds the Camino Rial, of King's highway, built by 1 conquering Spaniards, in some places running so close to the shore that passing travelers are sprinkled with spray. Fur tills inland sea has tides like those of the nearby ocean, and especially when north winds sweep its surface, long, rolling billows of surf break upon the shore with solemn Wherever one stands on its banks no land is visible upon the farther side and the prominent feature of the landscape is that great volcano, Omotpeyre, a smooth, unbroken cone 6,000 feet high, reminding one of the Mount Etna, since, like the pride of Sicilly, it rises from the water's edge. The islands of the lake nre many, lying mostly iu groups, the loveliest of them being Isola and Maileria, each crowned with cloud-piercing mountains.