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The National Geographic Magazine 



cent form, the centre would be, not among 

 them, but within the convex space which 

 they partially surround. 



" Other methods must therefore be de- 

 vised for finding the mid-position of ir- 

 regular and restricted areas, and many 

 might be suggested, more or less appli- 

 cable to different figures. But it will be 

 sufficient here to indicate only the method 

 which I have adopted as best suited to the 

 figure in hand, possessing, as this does, 

 something of a curved or crescent shape. 



" I have supposed a vessel to enter the 

 Bay from the ocean, at a point midway be- 

 tween its headlands, and to sail a course 

 as nearly as possible equidistant between 

 the opposite shores, on the right and left, 

 until it has penetrated to the remotest 

 point of the Bay. 



" This course, being carefully plotted 

 upon the map, although curved, may be 

 taken as the long axis of the Bay. 



" At right angles to it, at different 

 points, I have drawn straight lines reach- 

 ing across the Bay from shore to shore, 

 and, by use of a planimeter, I have de- 

 termined the position of such a line which 

 will exactly divide the whole area of the 

 Bay into equal parts. This line may be 

 taken as the corresponding short axis of 

 the Bay, and its intersection with the long 

 axis will be the centre of the Bay. 



" When at that point, a line drawn 

 across the bow of the supposed vessel, 

 perpendicular to her course, would have 

 one-half of the waters of the Bay in front 

 of it and one-half behind it. 



" Having carefully located the point in 

 this manner, I have determined from the 

 scale of the map, its distance from the 

 summit point of the small island in the 

 Bay, whose latitude and longitude are 

 given upon the map as follows : 



Latitude, ii° 03' 10" 

 Longitude, 85° 43' 38" 



" It proves to be 37 seconds to the 

 northward and 14 seconds to the east- 

 ward of this point. 



" I therefore fix the position of the cen- 

 tre of Salinas Bay to be : 



Latitude, 11° 03' 47" North. 

 Longitude, 85° 43' 24" West. 



" Toward this point the boundary line 

 must run, from its meeting with the Sapoa 

 River, unless the two Commissions can 

 agree upon a line with natural land- 

 marks." 



All the Arbiter's decisions were ami- 

 cably received by both Republics, the 

 questions in dispute are settled, and the 

 boundary marked with sufiicient accu- 

 racy for many years to come. 



THE NICARAGUA CANAL 



THE route for the Nicaragua Canal 

 as projected by the present Isth- 

 mian Canal Commission is shown 

 on the accompanying map. It gener- 

 ally follows the course of the San Juan 

 River for one hundred miles from the 

 Caribbean Sea to Lake Nicaragua about 

 one hundred and five feet above it, then 

 it traverses the lake for a distance of sev- 

 enty miles to the mouth of the Rio Las 

 Lajas, and after following the valley of 

 that stream for a short distance, crosses 



the continental divide, forty-four feet 

 above the lake, and descends the valley of 

 the Rio Grande to Brito, seventeen miles 

 from Lake Nicaragua. 



The canal as proposed will have a mean 

 depth at low water of thirty-five feet and 

 a bottom width of one hundred and fifty 

 feet. This width is for the straight sec- 

 tions ; on curves with a radius of less than 

 12,000 feet the width is increased at the 

 rate of one foot for each two hundred feet ; 

 thus a curve with a radius of 6,000. feet 



