Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/519

N I C N I C 477 Anthology celebrates the glory of Colophon as birthplace of both Homer and Nicander. The two works preserved do not justify this ; they have, as Plutarch says, nothing of poetry about them except the metre, and the style is affected and obscure ; but they contain some interesting information as to ancient belief on the subjects treated. Nicander flourished probably in the 2d century B.C. NICARAGUA, one of the five states of Central America, between 10 30 and 15 N. lat. and 83 11 and 87 40 W. long., forms an irregular equilateral triangle wedged in between Honduras and Costa Rica north and south, with base stretching for 280 miles along the Caribbean Sea from Cape Gracias a Dios southwards to the San Juan delta, and apex at the Coseguina volcano, Gulf of Fonseca, -which separates it on the Pacific side from San Salvador. The frontier towards Honduras, as laid down by the treaty of 1870, runs from the Gulf of Fonseca in a north-westerly direction along the Cordillera de Dipilto to 85 W., and thence a little north of and nearly parallel with the Rio Coco (Wanks) to the Atlantic above Cape Gracias a Dios. The still contested Costa Rica frontier may be taken as practically defined by the course of the San Juan river and the south side of Lake Nicaragua to within 14 miles of the Pacific, where it is marked by a conventional line drawn across the isthmus from the mouth of the Sapoa river to Salinas Bay on the Pacific. Within these limits, and including the Reserva Mosquita (Mosquito territory), the state comprises a total area of 58,500 square miles, with a population usually estimated at 400,000, but by the census of 1882 reduced to 275,816, and distributed over ten departments, as under : Departments. Population. 1 Chief Towns. Population. Rivas 16,875 Ilivas. 10 000 Granada 51 056 Granada 16 000 (?) Managua 10,067 Managua.. 12 000 (?) Leon 26,389 Leon .. ! 25,000 Chiriandega 17 578 Chinande^a 11 000 Nueva-Segovia . ... 36,902 Ocotal . . 3 000 ( )! Mata^alpa 51 699 Mata^alpa 9 000 Clienteles 27,738 Libertad 1 5,000(1) S. Juan del Norte... 1,512 Grey town .. ; 2,000 Mosquitia 36,000 Bluefields . i 1 000 Physical The low monotonous and swampy Mosquito Coast is features, broken by the two lagoons of Pearl Cay and Bluefields, and is fringed by a few cays (islets) and reefs, such as Great and Little Corn, Longreef, and Tangweera, which shelter no harbours, and serve only to obstruct the naviga tion. Here the only port is Greytown (San Juan del Norte), formed by the northern branch of the San Juan delta, and now nearly choked with sand. But the bold and rocky west coast, which extends for about 200 miles from Coseguina Point to Salinas Bay, although destitute of islands, presents a few convenient harbours, of which the chief are San Juan del Sur, Brito, and especially Realejo, which is designed as the terminus of Captain Bedford Pirn s Transatlantic route, and which Dunlop declares to be "as good a port as any in the known world," although of somewhat difficult access. In Nicaragua the great geographical feature is the remarkable depression stretching for about 300 miles north-west and south-east parallel with the Pacific coast, and transversely to the Central American plateau, which it almost completely interrupts. This depression, which lies at a mean elevation of scarcely 100 feet above the sea, is now flooded by the two great lakes Managua and Nicaragua (Cocibolca), which collect nearly all the drainage 1 The figures given are official, but would appear to be understated. It will be observed that the population of the department is in one case closely approached and in two cases is actually exceeded by that of its chief town of the western provinces, discharging it through the desaguadero (outlet) of the Rio San Juan to the Atlantic. About midway between Lake Nicaragua and the Caribbean Sea, the San Juan entirely pierces the main chain of the Cordillera de los Andes, which here sweeps round the east side of the lacustrine basin at a mean height of 4000 or 5000 feet northwards to the Honduras highlands. Towards the lakes the descent is very precipitous; but on the opposite side the land falls in broad terraced plateaus down to the Mosquito coast. Throughout its entire length the depression is traversed by a remarkable volcanic chain of isolated cones, which north of the lakes takes the name of the Maribios, termin ating in the extreme north-west with Coseguina (4000 feet), and in the extreme south-east with the low wooded archipelagos of Solentiname and Chichicaste near the head of the desaguadero. Between these two extremes the chief cones, proceeding southwards, are the Maribios chain, comprising El Viejo (6000 feet), Santa Clara, Telica, Orota, Las Pilas, Axosco, Momotombo (7000 feet, highest point in the state), all crowded close together between the Gulf of Fonseca and Lake Managua ; Masaya or Popocatepec and Mombacho (5700 feet), near Granada ; lastly, in Lake Nicaragua the two islands of Zapatera and Ometepec with its twin peaks Ometepec (4100 feet) and Madera (4190 feet). Several of these are still active, or at least quiescent, and in 1835 Coseguina was the scene of one of the most tremendous eruptions on record. The outbreak lasted four days, during which sand fell in Jamaica, Mexico, and Bogota. After a long repose Ometepec also burst into renewed activity on June 19, 1883, when the lavas from a new crater began to overflow, and continued for seven days to spread in various direc tions over the whole island. The eruption was accom panied by incessant rumblings and earthquakes, in conse quence of which the whole population took refuge on the mainland. Mud, ashes, lavas, and rocks now cover the mountain slopes, which had been under uninterrupted cultivation for many centuries. In the Maribios district also occur several volcanic lakelets, such as that of Masaya, besides numerous " infernillos," low craters or peaks still emitting sulphurous vapour and smoke, and at night often lighting up the whole land with bluish flames. The malpais, or barren lava-fields, here extend for miles in some directions, and no other region of equal extent probably betrays so many or so marked traces of igneous action as that portion of Nicaragua intervening between its lakes and the Pacific (Squier). Here the departments of Rivas and Granada are traversed by a low range sometimes spoken of as the Coast Range, which seldom rises above 2000 feet, and merges northwards in the magnificent plains of Leon and Conejo, that is, in the northern section of the lacustrine depression. It is crossed by three low and easy passes at its southern extremity along the Costa Rica frontier, again between the ports of La Virgen on Lake Nicaragua and S. Juan del Sur on the Pacific, and in the north between Lake Managua near Nagarote and Tama- rinda Bay, while it disappears altogether south of Leon, where the depression reaches the coast at Realejo. Four alternative routes are thus afforded for the interoceanic canal which is destined one day to connect the two seas through this great depression (see vol. iv. p. 793). No rivers of any size flow westwards to the Pacific, the western provinces discharging, as already stated, mainly through the San Juan emissary to the Caribbean Sea. Yet Lake Managua, which lies 16 feet above Lake Nicaragua, and 150 (?) above sea-level, may now be regarded almost as a land-locked basin. Although nearly 50 miles long by 25 broad, with a mean depth of 30 feet, it seldom sends any overflow through the natural outlet of the Estero