245 



passing" by Chihuitan and Petapa. This road 

 was opened in 1798 and 1801, and the indigos 

 of Guatimala, as well as cochineal and salt 

 provisions, have long been conveyed by that 

 route to Vera Cruz and the island of Cuba. 



The isthmus of Nicaragua and that of Cupica 

 have always appeared to me the most favourable 

 for the formation of canals of large dimensions, 

 similar to the Caledonian canal, which is 103 

 feet (French measure) broad at the waters 

 ■edge, exclusive of the raised way which stops 

 the falling in of the earth ; 47 feet broad at the 

 bottom, and 181 deep. In considering a com- 

 munication between two seas, capable of pro- 

 ducing a revolution in the commercial world, 

 we must not limit our attention to such means 

 as only serve to establish a system of inland 

 navigation by small locks, as in the canals of 

 Languedoc, Briare, or in the Grand Junction, 

 and the Forth and Clyde canals. Some of 

 those canals long appeared to be gigantic enter- 

 prizes, and indeed they were so when compared 

 with canals of smaller dimensions : but their 

 mean depth * not being more than from 6 to 7i 

 French feet, they cannot give a passage like 



* Andreossi, Description of the canal of Languedoc, p. 

 138. Huerne de Pommeuse, on Navigable Canals, 1822, 

 p. 64, 264, 309. Dupin, Mem. on the Marine, and the 

 Bridges and Highways of France and England, p. G5 and 72. 

 Dutens, Mem. or* the Public Works of England, p. 295. 



