NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



was that a weir should be placed at the point of bifurcation of 

 the two streams so as to direct about one-half of the water of the 

 Colorado River to the San Juan, the idea being that the increased 

 flow in the latter which would result would probably deepen its 

 channel, while at the same time increasing the supply of water 

 in the harbor. 



It is obvious, however, that the committee regarded the con- 

 dition of the harbor as practically hopeless, and that it was far 

 from being convinced that the adoption of its suggestions would 

 produce satisfactory results. This will appear from the follow- 

 ing excerpts from the report: 



" The deepening that we have advised in the lower San Juan, in the neighbor- 

 hood of the weir, may prove sufficient to improve the whole stream, since the 

 great proportion of water added at the dry season and the considerable increase 

 of the wet season discharge must act powerfully upon the bed of the stream, and 

 increase its depth wherever a yielding bottom is found. It may, however, well be 

 feared that this scour, induced along the bed of the stream, will sweep into the 

 harbor-basin masses of material not so easily removed from the deeper water of 

 the anchorage-ground as from their present positions. 



" It appears possible that the fate of Greytown harbor might have been averted 

 by timely efforts to arrest the sand and cut off their supply We have pro- 

 posed improvements, but these must fall very short of a renovation of the noble har- 

 bor that once welcomed to an ample and secure anchorage the largest ships that 



crossed the Caribbean Sea The original bight of Greytown cannot be 



restored. The only hope of improvement rests upon the possibility of maintaining 

 a navigable outlet from the present lagoon by increasing the outflow of the lower 

 San Juan and arresting the drifting sand of the coast The basin in Grey- 

 town, where ships formerly lay at anchor, has been largely reduced in size and 

 depth by the advance of the river delta upon one side and the drifting in of sand 

 on the other. The time is not very distant at which the river will debouch directly 

 upon the sea. 



" It will be necessary to maintain a sufficient anchorage basin by means of 

 dredging." 6 * 



It is a matter for conjecture how far the committee would 

 have modified its recommendations if it had visited Nicaragua 

 and made an examination into the conditions actually existing 

 there. Commander E. P. Lull, U. S. Navy, who made a survey 



64 Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1866, pp. 14, 15. 



