262 



DESCENT TO CHAGRES. 



Chagres. The Trinidad and Gatun are both 

 fine rivers^ like the Chagres. Beyond this 

 pointy on the same side^ is the isthmus through 

 which Lloyd recommended that a canal for 

 ships should be constructed for the purpose 

 of connecting Limon or Navy Bay, in the 

 Atlantic, with the Chagres, in order to render 

 practicable the navigation of deeper vessels 

 into the Chagres as high up as the mouth 

 of the Trinidad. 



This plan would, no doubt, be of advantage ; 

 but the depth of water, at all times of the tide 

 and at all seasons, over the bar at the mouth of 

 the Chagres, is sufficient for steam-boats and 

 for large schooners, without the assistance of a 

 canal from Limon Bay. 



From Cruces to Chagres, a distance of forty- 

 five miles, by water, the river is seldom broader 

 than the Arno at Florence, and often much nar- 

 rower ; but it was certainly deep enough when 

 I came down, after the rains, for steamers all the 

 way to Cruces. The banks are covered with im- 

 penetrable thickets. Lofty forest- trees rise above 

 these, and extend up the mountains beyond, form- 



