HONDURAS. '45 



the channel connecting the lake with the ocean there are fifteen 

 feet of water at low tide. A few hundred feet from the beach, 

 and a little to the westward of the center line of the channel, is a 

 small key which perfectly protects the entrance to the channel 

 from the waves caused by northerly winds. For one hundred 

 miles off the entrance the water is only ten to thirty fathoms 

 deep. Vessels can not only enter there for cargo at any time, 

 but they can find protection there from heavy gales. Any craft 

 finding difficulty or danger in entering, or any driven to leeward 

 of the entrance in a northerly gale, could find a perfectly safe lee 

 and good anchorage in five to ten fathoms under Cape Gracias, 

 only forty miles to the southeast. These and other facts war- 

 rant the claim that Caratasca is the best harbor on the whole 

 north and east coast of Central America. It forms a beginning 

 for the system of inland navigation which gives command of 

 every part of this grant, and offers gateways over which heavy 

 machinery, tools and other things required in the gold and silver 

 bearing districts of the Republic may be carried safely, quickly 

 and cheaply, and the fine woods and other products of the coun- 

 try brought out. 



To make this natural system of inland navigation most useful 

 the lagoons and rivers must be connected by cutting canals 

 through the few and narrow places where they are now separated. 

 Two miles of canal will connect Sangrelia river, Cape river and 

 lagoon, Black river and Ebon lagoon. Four miles more cf canal 

 will connect Ebon lagoon, Plantaia river, Brus lagoon Tomamaya 

 river and the Patuca. It is asserted by those who have long been 

 acquainted with this locality that a few hundred yards of cutting 

 will suffice to open a good channel from the Patuca to Tilbalacca 

 lagoon. Assuming that it will be necessary to dig three miles of 

 canal there, it follows that, by making nine or ten miles of canal 

 through low land, entirely free from rock and largely in sand and 

 alluvial deposits, between 250 and 350 miles of perfectly safe river 

 lagoon and navigation will be connected with Caratasca harbor and 

 the sea. This will give to fruit growers and others who may settle 



