A few of the large streams may, when in flood, spr.ead out in a temporary shallow sheet qn a dead level of clay, or playa, in a basin centre, but the sheet of water vanishes in the warm season and the stream shrinks far up its course, the absolutely barren clay floor of the playa, impassable when wet, becomes firm enough for crossing when dry.
The creek was an impassable flood in winter but easily fordable in summer.
Steamers ply on both lakes, but the channel is rendered impassable by a rapid near the town of Tipitapa, at its northern extremity.
Wide swamps, deep morasses, tangled thickets, wild impassable forests, were their prevailing features.
These plateaus, with an average elevation of Boo to 1000 ft., are mostly covered with forests of oak, beech and lime, and are deeply cut by river valleys, some being narrow and craggy, and others broad, with gentle slopes and marshy bottoms. Narrow ravines intersect them in all directions, and they often assume, especially in the east, the character of wild, impassable, woody and marshy tracts.
