THE WATER SUPPLY FOR THE XICARAGUA CAXAL 363 



h}' him to the British Museum, and these donations have proved of 

 great importance to the countries he has benefited. ' We ma}^ add 

 also that tliis kind of government pa3^s from the lowest material point 

 of view. In 1898 the value of the total trade of the country was 

 S9, 174,898, a gain of over 130 per cent in ten years, while the govern- 

 ment balance-sheet showed a surplus of $94,682.12. 



Charles Hose is the t3"pe of ruler over races inferior to the white in 

 intelligence and civilization which England has been assiduously 

 educating for the past hundred years, and it is to her success in this 

 education that the extent and stability of her tropical empire are due. 

 This country is about to undertake to rule people of a similar race 

 and characteristics to those in Borneo. We must raise up men like 

 these Englishmen — men who will found a government of the people 

 for the people supported by public opinion — or we shall fail as 

 utterly as the Spaniards have done. 



THE WATER SUPPLY FOR THE NICARAGUA CANAL' 



By Arthur P. Davis, 



Hijdrogriipher of the Isthmian Canal Commission 



In the Scientific American for February 24, 1900, appears an article 

 by Professor Angelo Heilprin, entitled "An assumed inconstancy in 

 the level of Lake Nicaragua: a question of permanency of the Nica- 

 ragua Canal." This article purports to show, from old observations 

 as compared with more recent ones and from theoretic considerations, 

 that the level of Lake Nicaragua has very materially declined witliin 

 recent years. A very conclusive reply, from a geological standpoint, 

 Vjy Dr C. W. Hayes, was published in the National Geographic 

 Magazine for April, 1900. 



In the Srientific American Supplement for May 19, Professor Heilprin 

 rejoins with another article, in which he dismisses the arguments of 

 Dr Hayes as insufficient, and attempts to show, from the observations 

 published by the Nicaragua Canal Commission, that, independent of 

 these arguments, the lake has declined 20 feet and 9 inches in level 

 within tlie last nineteen years. To arrive at this conclusion, Professor 

 Heilprin employs several assumptions in addition to the actual ol)ser- 

 vations taken by the Commission. He gives a table, i)resumably 

 based upf)!) tlie report of the chief engineer of the Nicaragua Canal 



