Amerrisque Mountains

The decay of their speech went on for a long time before contact with Europeans, and the name by which the people and the mountains are now known is, not improbably, the bare remnant of the original word, which may very well have been something like Amerristiquiqque, shortened successively to Amerristique and Amerrisque.

The Amerrisques boast a rich flora, due to their latitude and altitude, which ranges from sub-alpine, by Honduras, to tropical, by Costa Rica.

The fauna includes mountain lions, coyotes, ocelots; deer, guatusas, tapirs; anteaters, armadillos, quetzals; guardabarrancos, toucans, harpy eagles; great owls, roadrunners, rattlesnakes; corals, fer-de-lance, etc.

Some important cities located at the feet of the Amerrisques include Estelí (210,000), a cultural and manufacturing center, and Juigalpa (110,000), a cattle ranching area.

The French-American geologist Jules Marcou, in his work Nouvelles Recherches sur l'Origine du Nom d'Amérique (first published: Paris, 1875), accepted and supported the thesis on the origin of the name America by Belt, who had served as engineer to the Compañía Minera de Chontales between 1868 and 1871 in the gold deposits of Santo Domingo, San Benito, and San Antonio.