252 NICARAGUA AND THE ISTHMIAN ROUTES 



large quantities of sediment in times of flood. Eight miles below 

 the mouth of the Serapiqui the San Juan assumes decidedly 

 the character of a deltaic stream, and sends out a small distribu- 

 tary known as the San Juanillo, which meanders through the 

 swamps to the northward and, after receiving the drainage of the 

 Deseado, reenters the San Juan four miles above its mouth. Six 

 miles below the exit of the San Juanillo, or about 105 miles from 

 Lake Nicaragua, the main stream of the San Juan separates into 

 two large distributaries, the larger, called the Rio Colorado, flow- 

 ing eastward directly to the Caribbean, and the smaller, or Lower 

 San Juan, meandering to the northeast and finding its exit into 

 the ocean at Grey town. Between the mouth of the Colorado and 

 the Lower San Juan another distributary, called the Rio Tauro, 

 finds its way from the Lower San Juan to the sea. 



The principal obstructions to free navigation of light-draft 

 river craft from Grey town to Fort San Carlos consist of the shoal 

 character of the Lower San Juan, especially in times of low water, 

 and of the rapids lying between Machuca and the mouth of the 

 Sabalos. For purposes of a ship-canal the river also requires 

 deepening below the mouth of the San Carlos and between the 

 Sabalos and Fort San Carlos. 



When the three little caravels of Christopher Columbus sailed 

 from Palos, Spain, in 1492, it was with the object of reaching the 

 south and east shores of Asia by a shorter and easier route than 

 any yet known. This was the first systematic effort ever organ- 

 ized with this object, but it marked the beginning of a series of 

 similar attempts which have increased in magnitude and fre- 

 quency irregularly to the present day. For nearly half a cen- 

 tury these efforts took the form of a search for a supposed strait 

 through the American isthmus. When at last the numberless 

 fruitless efforts convinced the world that such a strait did not 

 exist, the dream was changed to one of a canal to be cut through 

 the isthmus, and later it was proposed to construct a railway 

 capable of transferring loaded vessels across. 



The project of a ship railway was promoted by the state of 

 Honduras with reference to a line across its own territory, con- 

 necting the harbors of Puerto Caballos on the Atlantic and La 

 Union on the Pacific. This route was examined by the British- 

 Honduras Interoceanic Railway Company, and is said to offer 

 many attractions as a route for railway transit. 



The ship-railway route that has received the most attention, 



