Lake Nicaragua, in its broadest part, is about 35 miles: it has several considerable islands, some of them active volcanoes, and all of them fertile. The country around its shores is stated to be very healthy and very fertile, and studded with high peaks, mostly volcanic, and many of them, on both sides, volcanoes in activity. At the point on its north-east corner, where the River St. Juan issues from it, there is (according to some of our best maps) erected the castle of St. Carlos; and lower down, about 16 miles on the banks (p. 097) of the river, is placed the castle of St. Juan, which castle was taken by the English in 1780. Alcedo says that this river is navigable for ships of large size; but others add, that during the dry season, when the river is low, in one or two places the navigation is obstructed by sand banks, which, however, could easily be removed by a deepening machine, such as that used for a similar purpose on the Clyde. Lake Managua in its western shore approaches in its southern portion to within 8 to 9 miles of the Pacific; and here the conical peak range appears to be discontinued and broken. So also it is in the route from Leon to Rialejo, a distance of 21 miles. The next nearest point of communication is to the southward of the town of Grenada, situate on the upper part of Lake Nicaragua, westward to the port of St. Juan, which runs considerably into the country from the Pacific. Here the distance from the lake to the sea is 10 miles. The next point of communication is from the neighbourhood of the town of Nicaragua to the bottom of the Gulf of Papagayo, the distance being about 15 miles. The river Partido flows from the S. E. through a course of fully 60 miles, and enters the Pacific at the bottom of the Gulf of Papagayo. At this point, also, the volcanic peaks and the ridge appear to be interrupted, and very low, thereby rendering a passage more probable and easy. On the neck of land, also, between the upper part of Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, there are situated in three different places between the Pacific and the interior part, three lakes, which, while it shows the low nature of the coast, tends also to shorten very considerably in this otherwise very narrow neck (12 miles), the space that intervenes between the lake and the ocean.