THE NICAEAGUA CANAL. 



291 



Immediately after tlie declaration of independence, the new republic decreed 

 the accomplishment of this work, but failed to supply the means for its execution. 

 After the discussion of various plans and counter-plans, a first scheme for a canal 

 terminating at San Juan del Sur (Concordia), on the Pacific, was propounded by 

 John Bailey in 1843. 



Since that time various other schemes have followed, but without obtaining the 

 necessary capital. The failure, however, of the Panama undertaking has revived 

 the hopes of speculators, who propose to carry the interoceanic route through the 

 Lake of Nicaragua. The works were, in fact, actually commenced at the end of 

 the year 1 889, though not, as the financial world expected, at the expense of the 

 United States Government. The estimated cost is fixed at £15,000,000, and a 

 period of six years assigned for the completion of the work, which will have a total 



Fig. 126. — LowEE San Jxja^i Canal. 

 Scalp 1 : 600 OOO. 



V/est oF Gr, 



Depllis 



Oto 5 



Fathoms. 



5 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



12 Miles. 



length of 170 miles, of which 140 of open navigation through the lake, and not 

 more than '30 through ship canals. We are assured that vessels of the heaviest 

 draught will take only 30 hours to pass from ocean to ocean, and that the cutting 

 will admit 32 such vessels per day, or 11,680, of about 12,000,000 tons, a year. 



The San Juan discharges a volume sufficient for hundreds of canals, but its 

 course is too shifting, its current too irregular and too charged with alluvia to 

 allow of its being canalised and adapted for the navigation of large vessels. 

 Hence it will be necessary to keep the canal quite distinct from the river through- 

 out its lower course, where it receives the great tributaries from Costa Rica. This 

 cuttuig, joining the river in its tranquil upper course, will be supplied with three 

 locks, each 550 feet long, by means of which the vessels will be brought to the 

 level of the lake, which stands over 110 feet above the Atlantic at low water. It 



