238 



PAPAGAYO. 



position in the year 1781 ; the surface of the 

 lake of Nicaragua was found to be 133 feet 

 111 inches above the sea^ fifteen fathoms deep, 

 and its bottom forty-six feet above the Pacific. 

 The greatest actual height of ^ny part of the land 

 is nineteen feet above the 4^7^ I have heard it 

 called a level country ; but Humboldt says, upon 

 hearsay, there are hills in the narrowest part of 

 this isthmus. Probably these are rendered of 

 less importance by some transversal valley.* 



The progress made in the art of engineering 

 would, doubtless, render this undertaking more 

 speedy, less expensive, and certainly of far 

 greater use than that of the Caledonian canal ; 



Another communication is stated, in the Modern 

 Traveller, to be practicable from the town of Tipitapa on 

 the southern shore of the lake Leon, to a river called San 

 Juan, falling into the Pacific in the bay of Papagayo, and 

 navigable for eighteen miles, for large vessels, from its 

 mouth ; the distance between the lake Leon and the 

 river San Juan where the canal would be formed, is only 

 twelve miles. 



It is said that the government of Central America have 

 determined upon this line for cutting a canal. 



