574 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



wine as being one of the shortest (about thirty-five miles) and 

 most practicable. 



From what we can glean of the presentation of the subject 

 at the Congress, M. de Lesseps estimated that the cost of 

 either of these lines would not exceed $100,000,000 about 

 the cost of the Suez Canal. (Lesseps is reported as saying 

 that the expense of the American canal would be something 

 like 300,000,000 francs; but that a capital of 500,000,000 

 francs would amply cover all expenses.) This estimate, it 

 would seem, is, to some extent, based upon the experience 

 gained at Suez; but the engineering and climatic difficulties 

 to be encountered in cutting across the American Isthmus 

 are so much greater than those encountered at Suez, and the 

 elements of uncertainty as to possible cost so numerous, that 

 the estimate of $300,000,000 named in our last Record, by a 

 most careful and experienced engineer, will doubtless be 

 much nearer the truth. 



In view of the difficulties and uncertainties that surround 

 this important problem, and of the fact that even with the 

 most sanguine estimates of its utility fully realized, it would 

 scarcely be possible that it should give its undertakers any 

 return for the enormous expenditures which its construction 

 and maintenance would involve, it does not appear to be 

 within the range of probability that it will ever be under- 

 taken by private enterprise ; and among those who have 

 given the subject the most attention, the opinion grows 

 stronger with every year that the American canal must be 

 built if at all by the great commercial nations of the 

 world, as a work of international character. 



A RAILWAY ACROSS NEWFOUNDLAND, 



a long-mooted project, has again been revived by an act of 

 the local authorities, proposing to grant an annual subsidy 

 of 24,000 to any company that shall construct and main- 

 tain such a line, in addition to which liberal concessions of 

 crown lands are to be granted. The chief arguments used 

 by the advocates of this scheme are, that the construction 

 of such a road ns the one proposed would open up immense 

 deposits of useful minerals, great pine and spruce forests, 

 and vast trads of land capable of yielding abundant bar* 

 vests of cereals ; and that it would bring America and Eu- 



