MR. LLOYD’S ACCOUNT OF LEVELLINGS 
66 
the best for a rail-road communication. The principal difficulty in the establish- 
ment of such communication would arise from the number of rivulets to be 
crossed, which, though dry in summer, become considerable streams in the 
rainy season. 
The line which crosses to Chorrera is much the shortest, but the other line 
has the advantage of terminating in the city and harbour of Panama. 
The country intersected by these lines is by no means so abundant in woods 
as in other parts, but has fine savannahs, and throughout the whole distance, as 
well as on each bank of the river Trinidad or Capira, presents flat and sometimes 
swampy country, with occasional detached sugar-loaf mountains, interspersed 
with streams that mostly empty themselves into the Chagres. 
Should a time arrive when a project of a water communication across the 
Isthmus may be entertained, the river Trinidad will probably appear the most 
favourable route. The river is for some distance both broad and deep. Its 
banks are also well suited for wharfs, especially in the neighbourhood of 
the spot from whence the lines marked for rail-road communications com- 
mence. 
As the river Chagres has been greatly dwelt on in the writings of those who 
have discussed the probability of communications being established between the 
two seas, and as considerable expectations have been formed of the facilities it 
might afford towards a water communication, I have given a separate plan of the 
river from its mouth to the point at which it was intersected by the levellings. 
(This plan will not admit of reduction within the compass of the plates in the 
Philosophical Transactions, but will remain in the Society’s library, where it 
may be consulted. A plan of the river on a less minute scale is contained in 
the general map.) 
The distances along the river were measured by a strong line of 10 chains 
in length, substituted for the usual measuring chain, properly subdivided, and 
its length occasionally verified ; the cord was borne usually by five men, but 
when required in the shallow and rapid water, by as many as ten men ; and 
when the water became too deep for the men to wade, canoes were employed 
to stretch the line. The soundings were taken by a man with a sounding line 
marked to half feet, seated behind me in the canoe ; so that I could observe the 
line myself at every cast. The casts were generally between 30 and 40 yards 
