Page:Narrative of a Voyage around the World - 1843.djvu/290

236 The result of our barometric measurement gave the Peak of Amapala three thousand eight hundred feet above mean-tide level. The temperature on the summit at sunrise 63°, that at San Carlos being 86°.

On the 30th of November, we returned to Realejo to rate our chronometers, where we met her Majesty's ship Imogene, at the moment of her departure for San Blas, having been some days on the look-out for us. The letters brought by her were not of interest, being duplicates of twelve months date.

After an absence of only forty-four hours, we reached our anchorage again in the gulf, and vigorously prosecuted our survey, which was uninteresting in detail. At the term day, we pitched our observatory near the sea margin, at the base of the volcano of Conseguina or Quisiguina, and having completed the requisite observations, started with the Starling and boats, to explore the Estero Real, which I had been given to understand was navigable for sixty miles; in which case, from what I had seen of its course at my visit to the Viego, it must nearly communicate with the lake of Managua. After considerable labour, we succeeded in carrying the Starling thirty miles from its mouth, and could easily have gone further, had wind permitted, but the prevailing strong winds rendered the toil of towing too heavy.

We ascended a small hill about a mile below our