ENGINEERING. 573 



THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL. 



The interest which the subject of the canalling of the 

 American Isthmus has lately excited in France, and to which 

 we referred in brief in our Record of 1877, appears to have 

 culminated during the past year in the formal ratification of 

 a contract between the government of the United States of 

 Columbia and the International Committee for the Construc- 

 tion of a Canal across the Isthmus of Darien. This appears 

 to be in keeping with all precedent upon this subject first 

 a survey, then the location of a " favorable " route, then some 

 enthusiasm, followed by the ratification of a treaty with un- 

 limited concessions, then some more enthusiasm, and nothing 

 more. 



The contract above referred to specifies that the canal 

 shall be completely neutral and open to the commerce of 

 the world, and that it shall be completed before the year 

 1895. The concessions embrace the free use of all building 

 materials on the Isthmus, the grant of a strip of land two 

 hundred yards wide on both sides of the projected line, and 

 the right to select, at pleasure, one million acres of land in 

 addition to the foregoing grant. The details of the project 

 that have as yet appeared are, in the main, the same as pub- 

 lished in last year's Record the line favored by the present 

 projectors being that located by Lieutenant "Wyse of the 

 French Navy, starting on the Atlantic side from the Point 

 of Gande, along the Tupisa and Tiati valleys, to the river 

 Tuyra, close to where it discharges into the Gulf of San Mi- 

 guel, on the Pacific side. The total length of this line would 

 be about seventv miles. Another and shorter route was lo- 

 cated by the Wyse party, as would appear from the pro- 

 ceedings of the late meetino: of the International Congress 

 of Commercial Geography, held at the Trocadero Palace in 

 Paris, of which no details have been published, save that its 

 entire length would not exceed 50 kilometers (31.05 miles). 

 Both of these routes, it is further stated, will require tunnels 

 of 14 and 7 kilometers (4.34 and 8.68 miles) respectively. It 

 would appear to be probable that this last route is not fir 

 from being identical with that from the Gulf of San Bias (on 

 the Atlantic) to the mouth of the Bayano (on the Pacific), 

 which has been steadily urged by the veteran engineer Traut- 



