MARITIME CANAL COMPANY OF NICARAGUA. 133 



care of Mr. Ford, who was always willing to give all necessary 

 information to the public. Here is a copy of the prospectus 

 issued and distributed to the visitors at the Paris International 

 Exhibition. 



THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 



" This Maritime Canal, for the largest ships, is being 

 constructed through the territory of the Republic of Nicaragua. 

 In part it borders upon the Republic of Costa Rica. It 

 traverses the lowest depression of land in the Cordillera, 

 between the Arctic Ocean and Cape Horn. This depression 

 is occupied by a large inland sea of fresh water, called Lake 

 Nicaragua, and by its outlet the San Juan River. The western 

 border of the lake is within twelve miles of the Pacific Coast, 

 from which it is separated by a low divide of forty-two feet. 

 The surface of the Lake is one hundred and ten feet above 

 the level of the sea. The lake drains towards the Atlantic 

 into the Carribean Sea, through the San Juan River. This 

 great natural feature is to be utilized in the proposed Canal. 

 The lake is one hundred miles long, has an average width of 

 forty-five miles, and a variable depth, reaching in some places 

 one hundred and fifty feet. The San Juan River is already 

 navigable for river and lake craft throughout most of its 

 length. 



The details of work to be done are, roughly, a 

 breakwater at Greytown, on the Carribean Sea, dredging 

 thence to the westward ten miles through alluvial ground, 

 then a lock of thirty-one feet lift. At two miles beyond, there 

 will be a second lock, or double lock of the combined lift of 

 seventy-five feet, and a dam across the small stream Deseado, 

 above which will be a basin affording four-and-a-half miles of 

 free navigation in the valleys of two small rivers, the San 

 Francisco and the Machado. Here the water will be raised 

 by dams and embankments, and the basins will connect 

 directly with the San Juan River, above a large dam across 

 that river, which will raise the surface level in the river and 

 lake and secure additional free navigation of sixty-four-and-a- 

 half miles in the river, and fifty-six-and-a-half miles across the 

 lake. On the western side of the lake the Canal enters a cut 

 of slight depth in the earth and rock, nine miles long, issuing 

 thence into the Tola basin, with five-and-a-half miles of free 

 navigation, obtained by damming the small stream, the Rio 

 Grande. At this dam a series of locks lowers the level 

 eighty-five feet, and the Canal proceeds in excavation down 



