Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/806

 788 HONDURAS huge cone to an altitude of 1,950 ft. Tigre is 20 m, in circumference, and is mainly covered with valuable timber. Taken as a whole, the face of the country is essentially mountainous, and though nowhere attaining an elevation equal to the greatest in Guatemala, the surface is more diversified than in that state. The only consecutive chain of mountains is the Si- erra Madre, which enters the republic at the west from Guatemala, and separates in the knot of Merendon into two great branches, N. E. and S. E. The former reaches to the bay of Honduras, terminating in the mountains of Omoa, the mean altitude there being 8,000 ft., and the maximum 9,000 ft.; it takes in its course thither the names of Sierra del Espiritu Santo and Grita. The latter, trend- ing first S. E., then E., under the name of Pacaya mountains, deflects to the N. W., and forms the great knot designated as the Se- laque mountains, whose highest peak, 10,000 ft., may be regarded as the culminating point of Honduras. N. E. of the Selaque group are the Puca mountains, presenting also a lofty peak, and connected by a S. E. range of com- paratively low hills with the Opalaca chain, which is in turn linked by another series of hills curving S. and W. to the mountains of San Juan, and these again to the Montecillos chain, N. of which are two parallel chains, Santa Barbara to the west and Canchia to the east, separated by the broad valley of Lake Yqjoa. The republic is here bisected by the valleys of the Humuya-Ulua system and the Goascoran, which rivers, rising in the same ridge 8. E. of the Montecillos, flow N. and S. respectively, the Ulua to the bay- of Honduras, and the Goascoran to Fonseca bay. East of this bisecting line are the Comayagua moun- tains, with a few lofty summits; the Lepate- rique chain lies S. of these, and the remarkable Sulaco group N. E., sending down from their elevated crests waters to either ocean. Due S. of the Sulaco knot are the Chili mountains, forming part of the southern boundary with Nicaragua; and due N. of it, near the Atlan- tic coast, rise the Oongrehoy peaks, ranging in height from 5,500 to 8,000 ft. Of the orog- raphy of the country stretching E. of Ion. 86 30' nothing definite is known. The N. E. por- tion has successive mountain ranges, some of which descend to the very coast, while others dwindle at a considerable distance inland ; and all are separated by vast terraced plains, such as those of Yoro and Olancho, celebrated for the number and excellence of their cattle, but inhabited only by tribes of savage Indians. A feature worthy of remark in the mountain sys- tem of Honduras is the absence of the volcanic coast range on the Pacific, which is so exten- sively developed in the other Central American states, especially in Guatemala and San Salva- dor, but which is here represented by the nu- merous volcanic islands dotting the bay of Fon- seca, supposed to have been itself formed by volcanic agency. The plain of Comayagua is of extraordinary beauty ; it is about 40 m. long from N. to S., with a mean breadth of perhaps 10 m.; and with it may be enumera- ted the plain of Espino immediately N. and al- most contiguous to it ; that of Sensenti, wall- ed round by the Merendon, Pacaya, and Se- laque mountains ; and still others, all extreme- ly picturesque and fertile. In Honduras, as elsewhere in America, the principal rivers flow to the Atlantic. The Segovia, called also Coco, Oro, and Wanks, already mentioned as forming a portion of the southern boundary, receives its principal waters from Honduras, and hence should be regarded as forming a part of its river system ; its course, about 350 m., through an unbroken wilderness, is over a rocky bed, which, together with a succession of rapids, renders the river unnavigable except by ca- noes. The largest river entirely within the territory is the Ulua, formed by the united waters of the Santiago and Humuya, with their respective tributaries the Santa Barbara and Sulaco, and holding a course N. by E. to the Atlantic, into which it falls about Ion. 87 49' ; the Humuya is the main branch, rising in the mountains on the southern border of the plain of Comayagua. There is but 9 ft. of water on the bar traversing the mouth of the Ulua, but steamers of small draft can ascend as far as the junction of the Santiago, a distance of about 70 m. by the course of the stream. The aggre- gate waters of the Santiago-Humuya system are computed to drain nearly one third of the ter- ritory of the republic. Next in order is the Rio Tinto, rising in the mountains bordering the valley of Olanchito, in the N. E. portion of the country, and with a course of perhaps 150 m. ; but its shallowness, and a bar with but 7 ft. of water at the entrance, impede its navi- gation except by small craft, which go up about 60 m. The Patuca, still further E., is a powerful stream, receiving tributaries of con- siderable magnitude from most of the moun- tains in the vast department of Olancho ; one of these tributaries, the Guayape, is about 250 m. long, and remarkable for its extensive gold washings; the whole course of the Patuca proper is probably not less than 200 m. Its bed presents similar obstructions to those of the other rivers named, but in spite of this the Patuca is said to be navigable for small steam- ers as far as the Portal del Infierno, and to be for commercial intercourse with the interior the best river on the E. coast of Central Amer- ica. The Chamelican rises in the Merendon mountains, and after a serpentine course, gen- erally N. E., discharges into the Caribbean sea a short distance W. of the Ulua; its valley abounds in valuable products, but it has little capacity for navigation. The other streams, mostly descending from the Sulaco mountains, and the largest of which are the Lean and the Aguan, are relatively unimportant. Two fine rivers flow southward to Fonseca bay : the Goascoran, which rises but a few miles S. of the head waters of the Humuya, and is about 80