* OTN WO GWA GOO) tk 169 
ble. The charges of interest upon money already spent , 
will be an unceasing drain upon money yet to be re- 
ceived. Torrential rains must continue to fall during 
the rainy seasons. The problem of the unruly Chagres 
remains yet unsolved. 
Wecannot doubt the brilliancy of de Lesseps’ vigorous 
intellect. Hislong career vouches for it. But Napoleon 
was brilliant, and yet committed the foolishness of in- 
vading Russia. He was great, but he had his Waterloo. 
De Lesseps is great, but he has his Panama. 
Let us pass now to the north and west, to a locality 
where nature seems to have made, if not a perfect site, 
at least a disposition of land and water more favorable 
than at any other point, for a water transit between the 
oceans. Here the backbone of the continents and isth- 
mus, running parallel and close to the Pacific shore, 
sinks to its lowest point, while its eastern slope descends 
into that great sheet of inland sea known as lake Nica- 
ragua. At this low point the divide is less than fifty 
feet above the level of the lake, and about one hundred 
and fifty feet above the mean level of the Pacific. 
Though the western shore of the lake is but fifteen miles 
from the beach of the Pacific, the lake drains through 
the river San Juan, into the Caribbean sea. The lake 
is deep and unobstructed, and the river, already naviga- 
ble for light-draught steamers throughout most of its 
length, requires but little labor to deepen it. 
Here, with such a vast water supply at the summit, 
with the lake itself as a summit level, nature seems in- 
deed to have offered assistance in connecting the oceans. 
No great engineering difficulties in utilizing the lake 
are claimed even by opponents of this route. There are 
no startling propositions connected with the plan. A 
large dam is to be built in the river San Juan, to back 
the water in the river up to the lake, but it is a simple 
matter of known engineering methods. A lock of ex- 
58 
