290 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



head of the population. The total exchanges amounted in 1890 to little OYer 

 £800,000, most of the traiEc being with the United States and Great Britain, 



The Nicaragua Canal. 



But trade and the industries will be powerfully stimulated by the completion of 

 the interoceanic canal w^hioh has been so long projected. There can be no doubt 

 that the isthmus of Nicaragua is by far the most suitable region for a canal with 

 locks, the line to be followed being already indicated by the depression of Jjake 

 Nicaragua and its emissary. 



It has even been proposed to cut a navigable way free of locks, a scheme by 



Fig. 125. — Peojected Inteeoceanic Canals aceoss Nicaeagua. 

 Scale 1 5,200,000. 



Jjepths. 



to 5 

 Pathoms. 



5 Fathoms 

 and upwai'ds. 



Projected Canal. 



011 lUi* I > 



Canalised River. 



Railways opened and projected. 

 124 Miles. 



which the great basin would be more than half emptied and many hundred thousand 

 acres of arable land reclaimed in the very heart of the country. But a cutting 

 over 220 miles long, under such a climate and without slave labour, would appear 

 to be beyond the power of modern industrial resources. 



Projects of a more practical nature were spoken of so early as the time of the 

 conquest, and even under the Spanish rule the buccaneer, Edwards David, con- 

 ceived the idea of a cutting between the lake and the Pacific. In 1780, the 

 engineer, Martin de la Bastide, proposed such a canal, and the next year the 

 ISIadrid Government undertook a first survey of the ground with a view to its 

 construction. 



