250 NICARAGUA AND THE ISTHMIAN ROUTES 



and a few Americans in Greytown enjoy the same luxury; but 

 in Leon, Granada, Rivas, or any other city of Nicaragua there 

 is hardly a pane of glass. By far the finest buildings are the 

 churches and cathedrals. The sidewalks are often only three or 

 four feet wide, and change their grade with nearly every house 

 they pass, so it is necessary to climb up or down three or four 

 steps every fifty feet or so. The streets are narrow and usually 

 unpaved; but most of the towns are built on sandy or rocky 

 ground, so that mud is not much encountered. 



The peculiar interest attaching to Nicaragua from the Amer- 

 ican point of view is the promise held out by the remarkable 

 hydrographic and topographic conditions _of a practicable route 

 for a large ship-canal. 



These conditions consist of a large, deep lake 100 feet above 

 sea-level, separated from the Pacific ocean by a narrow strip of 

 land, containing the lowest depression in the continental divide 

 between the Arctic ocean and the Straits of Magellan, and a 

 large navigable stream carrying the surplus waters from the 

 lake to the Caribbean sea. This route is especially fortunate 

 in having at its summit level a magnificent natural reservoir in 

 Lake Nicaragua, fed by an ample drainage basin. This reser- 

 voir is useful not only for storing water for operating the locks 

 of the canal, but also for regulating the control of great floods 

 that could hardly be provided for at practicable cost without its 

 aid. No other route enjo}^s advantages of this kind. 



The San Juan river is the sole outlet of Lake Nicaragua and 

 its tributary drainage basin. Its total length from the lake to 

 the sea is 124 miles, and it is usually navigable for light-draft 

 river steamers. It leaves the lake at Fort San Carlos at an alti- 

 tude varying from about 97 feet to about 111. Its course for 

 a distance of 26 miles is through a low, swampy country, re- 

 lieved by occasional hills. Through this course the river is 

 sluggish and receives several tributaries of small discharge, 

 which, in the dry season, are practically still water. The prin- 

 cipal of these are the Melchora, Media Queso, Palo de Arco, and 

 Rio Negro. The first tributary of importance to the San Juan 

 river is the Rio Sabalos, which enters from the north and empties 

 26 miles east of Fort San Carlos. About half a mile below the 

 mouth of the Sabalos are the first rapids, called Torro rapids. 

 These rapids are caused by boulders and gravel, probably 

 brought into the river by Rio Sabalos in former times, but do 



