The distance from ocean to ocean by the route that has recently received the approval of the United States Government, and is now in course of apparent realisation, is 169·8 miles. Of actual canal there will be 40·3 miles, the remaining 129·5 miles being free navigation through Lake Nicaragua, the Rio San Juan, and the valley of the Rio San Francisco. Beginning on the Pacific side, the canal starts from the port of Brito, situated about 12 miles north-west of San Juan del Sur, the Pacific terminus of the famous gold-fever transit route, where there is a broad channel, 342 feet wide at high water, reaching inland about 1½ miles to the tidal lock. This lock lifts the canal 24·2 feet above high tide of the Pacific. From this lock, which is really the beginning of the canal—the portion between the lock and Brito being in reality an extension of the harbour—the canal ascends the broad gently-sloping lower valley of the Rio Grande, which is to be diverted into the lake by an artificial channel, rising by means of three or more locks of from 26 feet to 29 feet lift, till, at a point 8¾ miles from Brito, it reaches the western end of the summit level, 110 feet above mean tide; thence it proceeds through the upper valley of the Rio Grande and across a moderately rolling country to the summit or “divide,” between the Pacific and the lake, 41·4 feet above the level of the water in the canal; then through the valley of the Guscoyol, a tributary of the Lajas, and along the bed of the diverted Lajas to the lake, a total distance of 8½ miles from the last lock and 17·27 miles from Brito. Between the lake and Brito one small stream is taken into the canal by a receiving weir. The river Tola and several small streams coming from the north are to be passed under the canal, and along its lower portion there will be ditches to intercept the surface drainage, which is inconsiderable, and convey it to the sea. The material to be excavated in this division is sand, gravel, clay, and in the “divide” cut rock, which will be utilised in the construction of the breakwater at Brito, in pitching the canal slopes, and in concrete for the locks, culverts, weirs, and the dam across the Rio Grande. The location of the canal in this division is the same as that proposed by the engineer Menocal on his return from Nicaragua in 1880. The prism, however, has been increased, the number of locks reduced, and their location changed. The enlargement of the terminal section is also a new feature.