nty-five days; to Hongkong, of twenty-seven days;
to Shanghai, of thirty-four days, and to Callao, of fifty-two days.

Lake Nicaragua is about 90 miles long and 40 miles in greatest width.
The water is fresh, and affords abundant depth for vessels of the
deepest draft. Several islands give facilities for establishing coaling
stations, supply depots, harbors, and places for repairs. The advantage
of this vast inland harbor is evident.

The lake is 110 feet above tide water. Six locks, or five intermediate
levels, are required for the Pacific end of the canal. On the Atlantic
side but five locks, or four intermediate levels, are proposed. These
locks would in practice no more limit the number of vessels passing
through the canal than would the single tide lock on the Pacific end,
which is necessary to any even or sea-level route.

Seventeen and a half miles of canal lie between the Pacific and the
lake. The distance across the lake is 56 miles, and a dam at the mouth
of the San Carlos (a tributary of the San Juan), raising the water level
49 feet, practically extends the lake 63 miles to that point by a
channel from 600 to 1,200 feet wide, with an abundant depth of water.

From the mouth of the San Carlos (where the canal will leave the San
Juan) to the harbor of Greytown the distance is 36 miles, which it is
hoped may by new surveys be shortened 10 miles.

The total canal excavation would thus be from 43-1/2 to 53-1/2 miles,
and the lake and river navigation, amounting to 119 miles by the present
survey, would be somewhat increased if the new surveys are successful.

From New York to San Francisco by this route for sailing vessels the
time is ten days shorter than by the Panama route.

The purely pecuniary prospects of the canal as an investment are
subordinate to the great national benefits to accrue from it; but it
seems evident that the work, great as its cost may appear, will be a
measure of prudent economy and foresight if undertaken simply to afford
our own vessels a free waterway, for its far-reaching results will, even
within a few years in the life of a nation, amply repay the expenditure
by the increase of national prosperity. Further, the canal would
unquestionably be immediately remunerative. It offers a shorter sea
voyage, with more continuously favoring winds, between the Atlantic
ports of America and Europe and the countries of the East than any other
practicable route, and with lower tolls, by reaso