1 90 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



the level of the Atlantic. This lake receives the 

 waters of some forty streams, and flows into the 

 Atlantic through that noble river, the San Juan. 

 Unfortunately this stream is intersected by several 

 cataracts which render navigation impossible. One 

 of the worst of these cataracts is human handiwork ; 

 for the inhabitants of the colony, to protect themselves 

 from the fillibusters who ravaged the West Indies in 

 the seventeenth century, obstructed the course of the 

 San Juan by sinking vessels in it with trunks of trees 

 and large masses of rock. The water being driven 

 back found a fresh outlet at the side of the San Juan, 

 and this outlet, now known as the Eio Colorado, has 

 never been stopped. In order to improve the navi- 

 gation of the San Juan it would be necessary to 

 canalize it by means of seven or eight locks, and 

 to regulate its course by an immense embankment 

 twenty -eight miles long upon the other slope. It 

 would further be necessary to intersect the Eivas 

 with a deep trench, make seven more locks, and 

 create at the two ends of the canal Greytown and 

 Brito, harbours upon coasts which are very unsuited 

 for the purpose. The partizans of these projects 

 urged in their favour the superiority of the climate, 

 the abundance of materials in the country, and the 

 relative density of the population; and it was very 

 clear that if the canal was to be one with locks, this 

 would have been the best of them. The total length 

 of the canal, including the 55 miles of the upper lake, 



