The great interest excited by the President's mention of the
Nicaragua Canal scheme makes it worth while to recall the exact nature of the scheme. In the Republic of Nicaragua, which holds the broader part of the isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific, lies Lake Nicaragua,—a sheet of water 90 miles long and some 40 miles broad. The lake is 110 ft. above the sea-level, and 12 miles from the Pacific and about 60 miles from the Atlantic. From the lake the river San Juan runs into the Atlantic. Across this river, about half-way up, a dam is to be made, which will render it navigable to the lake ; while from the dam to the Atlantic coast a canal, with two locks, will be dug. Another canal, with six locks, will run from the lake to the Pacific. There will thus be about 641 miles of free navigation in the San Juan River, 561 miles of free navigation on the lake, 16 miles of excavation on the Atlantic side and 111 miles on the Pacific, and there will also be t mile of locks, making in all an inland waterway of 129 miles. The cost is estimated at £12,000,000, but it may, we should think, be safely said that it will " work out * to at least three times that sum.
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