chiefly through the province of San Salvador, has 140 yards in breadth at its lowest ebb, and a current exceedingly rapid.
Besides several small lakes, there are three which both for extent and depth deserve more particular notice. The Lake of Nicaragua well known on account of its proposed junction with the Pacific may rank among the largest in the world, and if the long wished for communication between the two oceans should be effected, will become of the utmost importance to the commercial world. The proposals of different companies have been discussed by congress, but no effectual steps have yet been taken for the accomplishment of so desirable an object. The lake of Peten according to Juarros, has twenty-six leagues of circumference, and in some parts is thirty fathoms deep; and Atitan according to the same author, covers eight leagues from east to west, and four from north to south, has its sides precipitous, in depth is fathomless, and although it receives several rivers, has no visible outlet by which the influx is carried off. The water is fresh and so cold that in a few minutes it benumbs and swells the limbs of those who attempt to swim in it. Each of these with numerous others, abound in fish of different kinds; many of them have little islands in the middle of their waters picturesquely wooded, and some of them are inhabited.
