74 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NICARAGUA CANAL 
taut estal)lishments were eoniieeted by tramway. A clearing 
4()8 feet wide was made through the dense forest growth from 
Gi'eytown inland a distance of 10 miles, and a similar clearing 
of 0 miles was made to the west of Lake Nicaragua. A telegrapli 
line of 60 miles extended inland to Castillo, and this system was 
su[)plemented by telephonic side service. A harbor wharf 260 
feet long was built and equij)ped with modern steam conveniences 
for handling freight. A railway was constructed from Greytown 
a distance of 12 miles, with sidings, and was equipped with four 
locomotives, tifty ears, and suitable modern apparatus for rail- 
way and canal construction. The road built is of the most diffi- 
cult character, as it traverses for 6 miles a swamp considered 
impassable, where a large amount of corduiw and fill-work was 
re(|uired. The railwa}’ line was surve}'ed to Ochoa and its loca- 
tion determined, as well as from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific. 
The contractors secured for their work the plant of the Amer- 
ican Dredging Comi)any, formerly used at Panama, consisting of 
seven ])owerful dredges, two tugs, twenty lighters, pumps, etc. 
Dredging commenced Avest of Gre^down harbor in 1890, and 
there was oi)ene'd to a point well inland — 1} miles — a channel 17 
feet deep and from 150 to 230 feet Avide. The Machuca rapids, 
San Juan riA'er, Avere materially improved for steamboat naAuga- 
tion. In addition to this, exhaustive surveys and borings Avere 
made in connection Avith the Ochoa dam, I^a Flor dam, and other 
important i)oints on the route. The superior employes Avere 
American, Avhile the unskilled labor Avas performed by natives 
of Central America and by Jamaica negroes. The health of the 
emploves has been unusually good, the total deaths in three 
years giving a rate of 1.48 per cent of cases treated. 
On November 9, 1890, the Nicaraguan government officially 
declared that the company had complied Avith the article requir- 
ing an expenditure of $2,000,000 during the first year of Avork, 
thus confirming for a term of ten years the company’s conces- 
sionaiy rights. The financial troubles of 1893 first compelled 
the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company, under contract to 
build the canal, to limit its expenditures to the preservation of 
its ])lant, and finally to suspend all payments, Avhich resulted in 
a receiver l)eing appointed b}' a United States court in August, 
1893. The reconstruction of the contracting company has been 
accomplished, under the name of the Nicaragua Company, and 
it is noAV making preparations for resuming AVork on the canal. 
MeanAvhile the United States Senate, in connection Avith bills 
