The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-02-03

LRoN. NICARAGUA, January H. lSpe-
cial correspondence of The HERALD. J.
While the United States Congress is
lacking amendments and alterations on
the Nicaragua Canal bill, SO many
AMENDMENTS AND ALTERATIONS
that is original text, like Sambo's coat
is lost beneath the patches, and while
the people of Panama are divided be-
tween hope and fear-hope that the
stories are true which comes family
waited over the sea of a new syndicate
Of capitalists who will uphold the
French contractor and finish the 18TH
milan waterway; and we'll founded fear
that the several thousand discharged
employees (mostly Jamiaca negroes)
now proving about Aspinwall and
Panama, may "uprise" at any time to
rob and murdsr-let US see how the
Nicaraguan enterprise looks at this mo.
ment.
Strictly speaking, the inter-oesanic
passage across Nicaragua, proposed by
Americans, Is not q canal" at all, but
slack-watsr system Of grand dimen-
sioRs, wherein lake and river naviga-
ton, both pr actieally unassisted, con
stitute about n per cent. of the entire
passage: the artificial channels needed
to complete the roate aRgregating only
% per cent, Though the distance be-
tween the oceans is at this point nearly
double that where N. de Lssseps' great
ditch has buried 80 many millions, of
it across Nicaragua nature has already
completed more than half the passage.
To be more explicit. by the route pro-
posed across Nicaragua, the distance
from Graytown on the Atlantic coast to
Brito on the Pacific is $50 miles, but
natural waterways may be taken ad-
vantage of at least three-fourths of the
way Beginning at Brito there are
seventeen miles of land-csrriage to
Virgin Bay, which is the head of Lake
Nicaragua, crossing narrow plain and
taking advantage of a portion of the way
of the bed of the Rio Grande and the
channel of the Lajos RIVER where it
empties into the lake. The lake itself
affords ninety miles of navigation, be-
ing from thirty-five to forty-tve miles
wide, and with an average depth of
ninety feet; while from its eastern end
is the Atlantic. There are sixty-four
miles of river navigation
BY THE MIGHTY SAN JUAN.
The examinations of the present
survey comprise two plans, both being
the same from the Pacific across the
lake and into the San Juan to the con-
fuence Of that river with the San Carlos,
where Q dam is to be provided. From
this point to the Atlantic, one plan con-
templates following the general direc-
let of the San Juanillo, and thence by a
the river at Ochoa, (where there would
with the lake, whichever route is
chosen), and by retaining an uninter-
rupted level across the basin of the San
Francisco-a small stream which it pro-
poses to food and convert into an arti-
fetal lake, by the construction of an
embankmentj Just before it enters into
the San Juan-the summit level is so
extended to the eastern slope of the di-
viding ridge between the basin Of the
Svn Francisco and the lower San Juan,
and thence to Graytown, a distance of
seventeen miles, the canal follows the
valley to the little river Deseado, and
then TO the harbor, across an intervening
fat, alluvial plain. This latter route.
known as the upper" one, is about
eleven miles shorter than the lower
route; but there are doubts in the
minds Ct those accustomed to the an
nual floods as to whether that embank-
ment and those dams would stand the
wear and tear when those streams are
swollen to raging torrents by tropical
rains.
Any pan for q canal across Nicar.
aqua must take the level of the lake
ITO feet above the seas the summit
level. The estimates contemplate a
minimum depth of twenty-eight feet,
and between the locks the bottom will
have a width of eighty feet, while at
nearly every part of the exoavated por-
ten of the line, the surface width
ranges from 17s to 288 feet.
Approaching frum the Atlantic sids
steamers of ordinary SIZE can now sail
right up the river and into the lake at
high water, landing passengers only
;twelve miles from the Pacific, as the
crow flies. The distance from deep
water in the Bay of Graytown, or San
Juan del Norte, as the natives call it,
to San Marcos Bay 1.-THE eastern end of
the lake, where it debouches into the
San Juan). including
VARIOUS sRooKs AID TURNS
in the river. is about forty miles; but
this will be shortened several miles by
cutting across some of the river bends.
making the total length TO be excavated
ct both ends only abou tforty 1--WE miller,
in which the whole amount of cubic
yards to be moved would not be as
much as at Culebra alone, on the PAN
anna cut.
1t is proposed to build q breakwater
at Brito, a jetty at Graytown, two or
three dams, and several locks. Five of
the latter for raising and lowering YES
sells, will have lifts varying from 26 to
80 feet; while the tidal lock at Brlto
will have a variable lift from 25 to "a
feet, dependent upon the stage OF the
tide. The greatest hit will be that Cd
the eastern extremity of the summit
level-a massive lock carved from the
solid rock, with lift" of 50 feet.
Though two dams are to hold the
far-reaohing waters of the summit
level, they are so favorably located that
expert engineers declare there will be
40 unusual difficulties in their con-
struction. That of Ochoa will be made