42 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Oh. Ill, 



a sea-shore, and from further away came that moaning 

 sound that has from the earliest ages of history con- 

 nected the idea of the sea with sorrow and sadness.* 

 The steamer we stayed in was one of four river-boats 

 belonging to the Transit Company, which was at this 

 time in difficulties, and ultimately the boats were sold ; 

 part of them being bought by Mr. Hollenbeck, and 

 used by the navigation company which he established. 

 These steamers are built expressly for shallow rivers, and 

 are very different structures from anything we see in 

 England. The bottom is made quite flat, and divided 

 into compartments ; the first deck being only about 

 eighteen inches above the water, from which it is 

 divided by no bulwarks or other protection. Upon this 

 deck are placed the cargo and the driving machinery. A 

 vertical boiler is fixed at the bow, and two horizontal 

 engines, driving a large paddle-wheel, at the stern. The 

 second deck is for passengers, and is raised on light 

 wooden pillars braced with iron rods about seven feet 

 above the first. Above this is another deck, on which 

 are the cabins of the officers and the steering apparatus. 

 The appearance of such a structure is more like that of a 

 house than a boat. The one we were in, the Panaloya, 

 draws only three feet of water, when laden with 400 

 passengers and twenty tons of cargo. 



* " There is sorrow on the sea ; it cannot be qiiiet." Jeremiah 

 xlix. 23. 



