34 
Geography of Hayti. 
tors. The water is clear, hut hitter salt, and has a disagreeable 
odor, and ebbs and flows like the sea. 
About five miles North-West from this lake is found 
another, running in the same direction, but measuring only 12 
miles long, and in breadth varying from 2^ to 7 miles. It 
is called the Etang Saumatre, on account of the acrid taste of 
its waters, or Laguna de Azuei. This lake also has its tides. 
To the South of the Etang Sale, at 2\ miles’ distance, 
lies the Etang Doux, (sweet lake,) named also Laguna Icotea, 
(the lake of turtles,) which is nearly 5 miles long by 11- 
miles broad. This lake has no communication with the 
other two, and its extent depends upon the rains and the floods 
which maintain it. It abounds in turtle, good fish, and sea- 
fowl. 
The lake of Miragodne, in the department of the South, is-7 
miles long by 12,000 feet broad. Its circuit, counting 
the indentations, is supposed to measure 17 miles. Its depth 
averages 180 feet. Its waters flow into the sea at the Acul 
du Carenage, near the town of Miragoane, and are used by the 
inhabitants. This lake is crossed by a wooden bridge, with 
stone abutments* on the road from Petit-Goave to Miragoane. 
The intention was formerly entertained of constructing a canal 
between the Acid du Petit-Goave and this lake for the 
transport of provisions and produce. 
The project was also formed of digging a canal between the 
Etang Saumatre and the ernbarcad'ere du fosse, near the town 
of Port-au-Prince. This canal would thus have traversed the 
plain of Cul de Sac in all its length, and would have served to 
convey the immense quantity of sugar here made. In 1822, 
government caused‘to be built upon this lake, and upon the 
Etang Sale, a barge and lights, in order to facilitate the com¬ 
munications of the capital with the department of the South- 
East, and to spare travellers a painful journey by a road cut 
through the rocks on the north bank of the Etang Saumatre. 
But the force of habit prevents people- profiting by these 
