236 



NICARAGUA. 



now there a schooner of forty tons engaged in 

 commerce. 



The lake Nicaragua^ therefore^ must be deep 

 enough for vessels of great tonnage. That of 

 Leon is also said to be fit for ships of large 

 burden ; and^ as it is of higher elevation above 

 the Pacific than the Nicaragua^ it would serve 

 as an upper basin for the supply of any quantity 

 of water required to feed a canal of large 

 dimensions carried from the head of the lake 

 into the bay of Realejo^ more especially if the 

 flow of water from the Leon into the Nicara- 

 gua was regulated by locks and sluices. It is^ 

 besides, affirmed that a navigable river, called 

 Tosta, flows only twelve miles from the lake 

 of Leon into the Pacific. This fact is to be 

 found mentioned in the history of Guatemala 

 given in the Modern Traveller.^^ I have seen 

 no map describing it by name. Its existence 

 would, doubtless^, augment the facilities of a 

 junction between the lakes and the ocean. It 

 would be an expensive, but not an impracticable 



