our formed by the mouth of the river having
been greatly neglected, has been much choked up; but it would be
unnecessary to incur the expense of improving it, for Navy Bay, called
also the Bay of Limon, lying immediately to the eastward of Chagres,
is a large and spacious harbour, being three miles wide at the mouth,
and having sufficient draught of water for the largest ships in the
British Navy. The river Chagres approaches within three miles of the
head of this Bay; the ground between is a dead level,[7] and all
writers agree that, the difficulties of the harbour being surmounted,
there is abundance of water in the Chagres. It is, therefore, proposed
either to cut a Canal from Navy Bay to the Chagres, and then to ascend
that river as far as its junction with the river Trinidad, and after
traversing a part of the latter, to construct a canal which shall
connect the Trinidad with the River Farfan, a branch of the Rio
Grande, and to proceed by that river to Panama; or should the Bay of
Chorrera, which is laid down in the plan, be deemed a preferable
harbour, to branch off to that bay; or to make the Canal across the
whole width of the isthmus, from the Bay of Limon to that of Panama,
using the rivers Trinidad, Farfan, and Bernardino, and other streams
which cross the line, for the supply of the Canal.

The plan annexed to this pamphlet will exhibit the two lines, and the
reader will perceive that a small Lake, called the Lake of Vino Tinto,
may, if the first proposal is adopted, be made available, and so
lessen the extent of the Canal. If the Rivers are used as a part of
the Navigation, the distance between that point of the River Trinidad
at which the Canal would commence, as shewn in the plan, and the point
where the Farfan ceases to be navigable, is only 25 miles, and there
is no high land intervening, the chain of the Andes terminating
several miles to the eastward of the valley of the Chagres, as before
mentioned. If the other plan be adopted, the length of the Canal will
be 58 miles.

Although at first sight it may appear to be a work of supererogation,
to carry the Canal over that part of the Isthmus which is traversed by
navigable rivers, it is by many engineers considered preferable in
forming a Canal, to use the rivers in its vicinity only for the
purpose of supplying the Canal with water, and not as a continuation
of the inland navigation, on account of the variation in the depth of
rivers from floods, or o