Junction of the Savana and Tuyra.—From Areti mouth to the junction of the Savana and Tuyra rivers, S., four miles, the river has a uniform width of two miles, and a depth of from eight to nine fathoms.
On the west bank of this reach is Punta Machete, with a small shoal above it, called Bajo Grande, and one below it, Bajo Chico. Both of these are close in shore, and oysters are found on them.
The Savana Mouth.—From the west point of the Savana mouth, in lat. 8° 21', long. 77° 54', the land rises into a ridge of hills of about 309 feet elevation, running n. for about four miles parallel to the river, from which it is separated by a strip of level land half a mile wide. There is a quebrada, or rivulet, in the ridge, called Laguadilla, which has plenty of fresh water in the driest season.
Behind Nisperal, the east point of the Savana mouth, there is a low ridge of hills; from the north bank of Iglesias, also, a narrow ridge follows the course of the Savana for about three miles. This is the Cerro Titichi, which gave its name to a mission of Indians at the mouth of the Chuquanaqua, the last survivor of whom is a man named Marcellino, who resides at Pinogana, on the Tuyra. On the north bank of Iglesias is Quebrada de Tigre, and on the Savana, above its mouth, is Quebradita la Monera, where fresh water may be obtained.
At the mouth of the Savana there are nine fathoms, at low water, and the tide rises from twenty-one to twenty-seven feet.
Boca Chica and Boca Grande, the mouths of the Tuyra, are perfectly safe entrances, and have a depth of thirteen to twenty fathoms of water respectively.
The gulf of San Miguel has good depth of water, and would hold the shipping of the world. Its mouth, between Cape San Lorenzo on the north, and Punta Garachiné on the south, is ten miles across, and opens into the Pacific, quite outside the bay of Panama. Its direction inward is n. e. fifteen miles to Boca Chica. Inside the bay of Garachiné, the shores of the gulf approach each other, and the width diminishes to four miles, between Punta Brava and Morro Patiño, with a depth of from nine to twenty fathoms, but again increases, and then diminishes to Boca Chica.
Close to Cape San Lorenzo is a small shoal, called El Buey, which may be easily avoided. There are several islands in the gulf, as Iguana, Cedro, Islas de San Diego, etc., etc., which are all safe of approach. On the north side, the rivers Congo, Buenavista; and on the south the Moguey, Guaca, Taimita, and Sambú, open into the gulf; while the Tuyra and Savana fall into its eastern end, the Ensenada del Darien, called by the Granadians 'Boca de Provincia,' or Mouth of the Province. Cullen's Isth. of Darien.
From what has been said, it sufficiently appears that Nicaragua is a country of great beauty of scenery and vast natural resources. She has, however, attracted the attention of the world less on these accounts than because she is believed to possess within her borders the best and most feasible route for a ship-canal between the two great oceans. The project of opening such a canal began to be entertained as soon as it was found that there existed no natural communication between the seas, as early as 1527. Since that period it has furnished a subject for much speculation, but beyond a few partial examinations, until very lately, nothing of a practical or satisfactory character had been attempted. In 1851 a careful survey was made of the river San Juan, Lake Nicaragua, and the isthmus intervening between this lake and the Pacific, by Colonel O. W. Childs, previously engineer-in-chief of the state of New York, under the direction of the now extinct Atlantic and Pacific Ship-canal Company. Until then, it had always been assumed that the river San Juan, as well as the lake itself, could easily be made navigable for ships, and that the only obstacle to be overcome was the narrow strip of land between the lake and the ocean. Hence, all the so-called surveys were limited to an examination of that part of the line. One of them was made under the orders of the Spanish government, by Don Manuel Galisteo, in 1781; another, and that best known, by Mr. John Baily, under the direction of the government of Central America, in 1838. An intermediate examination, quoted by Thompson,[XXXIV-53] seems to have been made early in the present century. The following table will show the results of these surveys as regards this particular section:
| Authorities. | Distance from Lake to ocean. | Greatest Elevation above Ocean. | Greatest Elevation above Lake. | |
| Galisteo, 1781 | 17 miles, | 200 feet. | 272 feet. | 134 feet. |
| Quoted by Thompson, 1829 | 17 miles, | 320 feet | 296 feet | 154 feet |
| Baily, 1838 | 16 miles, | 730 feet | 615 feet | 487 feet |
| Childs, 1851 | 18 miles, | 3,120 feet | 159 feet | 47½ feet |