the greater part of the waters of the San Juan to the sea. This is
about twenty miles above Greytown, but only eighteen by the
Colorado to the sea, and is near the head of the delta, as I have
already mentioned. The main body of water formerly flowed down past
Greytown, and kept the harbour there open, but a few years ago,
during a heavy flood, the river greatly enlarged and deepened the
entrance to the Colorado Channel, and since then year by year the
Greytown harbour has been silting up. Now (I am writing in 1873)
there is twelve feet of water on the bar at the Colorado in the
height of the dry season, whilst at Greytown the outlet of the
river is sometimes closed altogether. The merchants at Greytown
have entertained the project of dredging out the channel again, but
now that the river has found a nearer way to the sea by the
Colorado this would be a herculean task, and it would cost much
less money to move the whole town to the Colorado, where by
dredging the bar a fine harbour might easily be made, but
unfortunately the Colorado is in Costa Rica, the Greytown branch in
Nicaragua, and there are constant bickerings between the two states
respecting the outlet of this fine river, which make any
well-considered scheme for the improvement of it impracticable at
present. A sensible solution of the difficulty would be a
federation of the two small republics. The heads of the political
parties in the two countries see, however, in this a danger to
their petty ambitions, and will not risk the step, and so the
boundary question remains an open one, threatening at any moment to
plunge the two countries into an impoverishing war.

If the Colorado were not to be interfered with by man, it would, in
the course of ages, carry down great quantities of mud, sand, and
trunks of trees, and gradually form sandbanks at its mouth, pushing