Page:Narrative of a Voyage around the World - 1843.djvu/228

174 a fair view of the surrounding objects. After noon I returned and visited the first fall, which is about a quarter of a mile from the gorge of the lake. Here a mass of rock passes across, over which the water falls by an inclined plane eight feet. Below it the stream is spanned by a bridge about fifty feet in length.

On the Tepitapa side a sulphur spring issues from the earth, at near the boiling temperature, and flows into the main stream. My thermometer was not graduated above 120°, therefore I cannot state more than that eggs were boiled in it and my sensation on putting my finger to it, satisfied me it was near two hundred and twelve. Crystallization was abundant on the small stones between which it flowed, and some specimens I examined were a mixture of sulphur and calcareous matter. The taste was not unpleasant. It is deemed a sovereign remedy if taken by the advice of the padre, and much used both internally and externally. As he seemed to like neither me nor my instruments, he possibly mistook me for a poacher on his domain.

The population of Tepitapa, which is but a small village, (distant twelve leagues from Grenada,) comprises five hundred souls, of which the cholera took off thirty; but the average deaths range at ten per cent.

The produce may be included under the heads of cattle, corn, and indigo. Nicaragua wood (termed Brazil) is cut on the north side of the stream and