60 
MR. LLOYD’S ACCOUNT OF LEVELLINGS 
excellent 10-inch theodolite by Carey; and a very fine altitude and azimuth 
circle for the survey. 
Our first level commenced at the end of the street called Calle Sal si Puede 
in the suburbs of Panama and at the point of a bay called Playa Prieta, at 
spring tide high-water mark, observed two days after full and change, which I 
had subsequently the opportunity of verifying on my return to Panama, and of 
ascertaining that it was 3.03 feet lower than the extreme rise of occasional tides 
under the influence of particular winds. From this point we followed the old 
road to Porto Velo, and after 732 pairs of levellings in a distance from Panamfi of 
1828 chains (22f miles), we arrived at the banks of the Chagres on the 30th of 
June, 633.32 feet being the greatest height we had passed over; and after 
building a secure station on the bank 169.84 above the level of high water 
mark in the Pacific, we finished our operations for that year, on account of the 
great inclemency of the season, the sickness and debility of the people employ- 
ed, and from our own constitutions beginning to suffer by continued exposure 
to incessant rains, with generally no other covering than tents and ranchos or 
small huts built by ourselves. 
On the 7th of February 1829, the dry season having for some time set in, we 
resumed our levelling at the station at which we had desisted the year before, 
having the instruments in good repair; and having descended to a station on 
the river fixed on for the purpose, we found the surface of the water to be 152.55 
feet a ove high-water mark in Panama. 
W e now followed the course of the river, and were enabled thereby to take 
longer levels than before, which were made with the greatest possible care, re- 
ducing the observations to the true levels by the most exact tables for the 
curvature of the earth. 
After 68 pairs of levellings we arrived at Cruces in a distance of 1545 chains 
(19-j miles), and found a fall in the river of 114.60 feet, leaving only 37-96 
feet above the Pacific. Having nearly 50 miles more to descend, and finding 
so great a fall in 19 miles, we were led to expect a greater fall than 37-96 feet 
in the remaining distance; and consequently, at this stage of our operations, to 
apprehend that we should find the level of the sea at Panama to be higher than 
at the mouth of the Chagres. 
From Cruces to a town called Gorgona, distant 419 chains (5^ miles), there is 
