MARITIME CANAL COMPANY OF NICARAGUA. 135 



The lowest flow of the lake in the dry season is 11,390 

 cubic feet per second. Its average discharge is 14,724 cu^ic 

 feet per second, or in one day 1,272,530,600 cubic feet. 

 The water required for 32 lockages in one day is 127,400,000 

 cubic feet : consequently the lake supply alone is ten times 

 the maximum wanted for the operations of the Canal. 



The time consumed in passing from Ocean to Ocean by 

 steamers, is estimated at 28 hours, which includes one hour 

 and twenty minutes for possible detentions in narrow cuts." 



To this day, the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua, 

 has made many surveys, and I think that excavations have 

 been commenced at several places, but the result has been 

 of little importance. 



On the 21st of February, 1891, there was a debate in 

 the Senate at Washington on the Nicaragua Canal Bill. 

 Some Senators spoke in favour, others against, and the 

 Senate ultimately adjourned without having come to any 

 decision regarding the Bill. 



It was estimated that the Canal could be made at a cost 

 of 100,000,000 dollars, or £25,000,000 ; but in my Journal 

 the Hmnming Bird, Vol. 1, page 30, I say that I am not of 

 that opinion, and that the opening of the Nicaragua Canal 

 will cost just as much as that of the Panama Canal and 

 probably more. 



I am still of the same opinion. 



In 1892, their was another debate in the Senate at 

 Washington about the Nicaragua Canal Bill. The pro- 

 moters asked from the Government of the United States to 

 guarantee a minimum interest of three per cent, I believe, on 

 all the capital subscribed, during the completion of the work, 

 but again the Senate adjourned without having come to any 

 decision. 



I do not know what will be the next move ; but I am 

 always of the same opinion as already expressed in the 

 Humming Bird, that one day or another, not far distant, 

 not only the Nicaragua Canal will be opened ; but also the 

 Panama Canal. In a very short time the opening of both 

 of them will be an absolute necessity, and both will rank 

 amongst the most magnificent and most remunerative works 

 of the Twentieth Century. 



From the beginning, I have been in favour of the 

 Nicaragua Canal, and in the Geogrophical Congress of Paris, 

 1878, at which I assisted as a Member of the Congress and 

 as the Delegate of the Republic of Guatemala, I supported 



