Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-09
ON B ISTHMUS.
RAMBLEs IN THE REGION OF THE
TROPICS.
How Things Appear at Nicaragua
The Infant Canal and It's
Brilliant Prospects.

C-orrespoRdence of the REooEoGSIoN
LEON Nicaragua, Jan. %, 1883.
While the United States Congress is
talking amendments and alterations in the
Nicaragua Canal bill, so many amendments
and alterations that its original text, like
Sambo's coat. is lost beneath the patches.
and while the people of Panama are di-
vided between hope and fear-hope that
the stories are true which come family
waited over the sea of a new syndicate of
capitalists who will uphold the French
contractor and finish the isthmlan water
way; and well-founded fears that the sew
eral thousand discharged employees mostly
Jamaica negroes, now prowling about As
spinwall and Panama, may "uprise' at any
time to rob and murder-let us see how
the Nicaragua enterprise looks at this
moment.
Strictly speaking, the interoceanic pas
sage across Nicaragua, proposed by Amer
leans, is not a >canaP' at all, but a slack
water system of grand dimensions, wherein
lake and river navigation, both practically
unassisted, constitute about II per cent. of
the entire passage, the artificial channels
needed to complete the route a%ggregating
only % per cent. Though the distance
between the oceans is at this point nearly
double that where NJ. De Lesseps' great
ditch has buried so many millions, yet
across Nicaragua nature has already COM
pleted 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 10 miles, but natural water
ways may be taken advantage of at least
three-fourths of the way. Beginning at
Brito, there are II miles of land-carriage
to Virgin Bay, which is the head of
Lake Nicaragua, crossing a narrow
plain and taking advantage, a portion of
the way, of the bed of the Rio Grande and
the channel of the Laias river where it
empties into the lake. The lake itself
affords ninety miles of navigation, being
from thirty-tve to forty-fye miles wide,
and with an average depth of ninety feet
while from its eastern end to the Atlantic,
there are Ga miles of river navigation by
the mighty San Juan.
The examination OF the present survey
comprise two plans, both being the same
from the Pacific, across the lake, and into
the San Juan, to the confluence of that
river with the San Carlos, where a dam is
to be provided. From this point TO the
Atlantic, one plan contempiates following
the general direction of the San Juan as
far as the outlet of the San Juanillo, and
thence Hy a Decline to Graytown; the
other to leave the river at Ochoa (where
there will be a dam TO raise the water to a
level with the lake, whichever route is
chosen), and by retaining an uninterrupted
level across the basin of the San Francisco
-asmall stream which it proposes to food
and convert into an artificial lake, by the
construction of an embankaaent just before
1t enters into the San Jusn-the summit
level is extended to the eastern slope of
the dividing ridge between the basin of
San Francisco and the lower San Juan,
and thence to Graytown, a distance of II
miles, the canal follows the valley of the
little river Deseado, and then to the har-
Dor, across an intervening fiat, a~lluyial
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 of those accustomed to the
annual floods, as to whether that embark
ment and those dams would stand the wear
and tear when the rivers are swollen to
raging torrents by tropical rains.
Any plan for a canal across Nicaragua
must take the level of the lake-110 feet
above the level of the sea-as the summit
level. The estimates contemplate q mini
MN, Iapfl ,f 90 fD1t - --- Il
locks the bottom will have a width of so
feet, while at nearly every part of the ex-
cavated portion of the line the surface
width ranges from 1874 to 2SS feet.
Approaching from the Atlantic side,
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 ito San Marco Bay 1.-THE
eastern end of the lake, where it de-
bouches into the San Jusn}, including
various crooks and turns in the river, is
about 40 miles; but this will be shortened
several miles by cutting across some of the
river bends, making the total length to be
excayated at both ends only abou. IS
miles, in which the whole amountsf cubic
yards TO be moved would not he SO much
as at Culebra alone, in the Panama cut.
1t is proposed to build a breakwater at
Breto, a jetty at Graytown, two or three
dams and several locks. Five OF the latter.
for raising and lowering vessels, will have
lifts varying from 26 to 80 feet; while the
tidal lock at Breto will have a variable
lift, from % to 81 feet, dependent upon
the stage of the tide. The greatest lift
will be that oil the eastern extremity of
the summit leyel-a massive lock carved
from the solid rock, with a cliff" of %
feet.
Though two dams are to hold in place
the far-reaching waters of the summit
level they are so favorably located that
expert engineers declare there will be no
unusual difficulty iii their construction.
That at Ochoa will be made of concrete.
1855 feet long and 81 feet above the pres
ent water-leyel, with foundations extend
ing 20 feet below. The San Francisco
dam will be $500 feet long, with a max
imum height OF 81 feet-being the en-
bankment before mentioned.
Chief Engineer A. G.. Menocal SAYS that
In building this canal there are no par
tlcuiar engineering difficulties to be sur |
mounted. The heaviest part of the work
will be making that cut, 119 feet deep, |
through nearly three miles of solid rock.
About 16 miles will have to be dredged, |
and the remaining 8 miles through firm,
low4ying ground, with only rock digging
to a depth of 20 feet
Lake Nicaragua forms the most superb
harbor that can be imagined, and there
fore nothing will be required at either
ocean beyond adequate protection at the
canalentrance, and sufficient water to reach |
it. The canal will be able to accommodate |
vessels of the deepest draught, and through
at lesS 81 per cent. of the e~xcavated route
vessels can pass n another. Had this
work been begun simultaneously with the
French ditch at Aspinwah, steamer loaded
with grain wouldelong age have been ply
ing between the northwestern ports of the
United States via Nicaragua, as we'll as be-
tween New York, Boston, PhiladeIphia, |
China, Australia and the Orient.
Though the canal is essentially an
American enterprise, the Nicaragua Of
iiciaIs extend TO it their heartest sympathy
and support. The corps of engineers now
the spot are divided into lahd survey
A