146  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

rolling-stock.  Engineers  are  making  preliminary ­
  surveys  which  will  mean  a  material  addition ­
  to  the  railway  mileage  here.
Nicaragua  maintains  about  223  miles  of
railway  which  touch  her  leading  cities.  In
addition  to  this,  Lake  Nicaragua,  92  miles
long,  and  Lake  Managua,  32  miles  long,  are
used  largely  for  transportation  purposes  and
have  a  fair-sized  fleet  of  steamers  operating  in
connection  with  the  railways.
Panama  has  no  railways  of  its  own  at  present, ­
  although  $3,000,000  has  been  borrowed
from  New  York  bankers  for  the  purpose  of
building  lines  throughout  the  Republic.
The  Panama  Railway,  owned  by  the  United
States  Government,  passing  through  the  Canal
Zone,  and  about  50  miles  in  length,  may  be
considered  as  a  portion  of  the  railway  system
of  the  Republic  of  Panama  for  its  citizens
have  the  use  of  it  for  every  purpose.
Substantially  all  the  railways  of  Central
America  are  equipped  with  American  rollingstock
  and  operated  with  but  few  exceptions
under  American  control.  It  is  extremely