WHAT THE NICARAGUA CANAL SCHEME IS.

Evening Star, Issue 10851, 8 February 1899, Page 4

WHAT THE NICARAGUA CANAL SCHEME IS.

The great interest excited by the Presidents mention of the Nicaragua Canal scheme makes "worth while to record the exact nature of the scheme. Lake Nicaragua-a sheet of water ninety miles long and some forty miles broad -is 110 ft above the sea level, and twelve miles from the Pacific and about sixty miles from the Atlantic. From the lake the river San Juan runs into the Atlantic. Across the 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 sixty-four and a-half miles of free navigation ig the San Juan River, fifty-six and a-half miles of free navigation on the lake, sixteen miles of excavation on the Atlantic side, and eleven and arquarter miles on the Pacific; and there will also be threequarters of a mile of locks, making in all an inland waterway of 128 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.—' Spectator. Bowles: " Did you climb the Alps while you were abroad?" Cupps: "No; just ran up a bill, that was all."