3S2 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



new year is favorable. . . . The whole country is apparently 

 convinced that it will have to accept low prices and small 

 profits, and is satisfied to accept these conditions. Xo sud- 

 den return of great prosperity can be looked for, but a grad- 

 ual return to better times is now held to be a sufficient cause 

 for cheerfulness." 



THE CANAL ACROSS THE AMERICAN ISTHMUS. 



The constant agitation of this problem by the friends of 

 rapid maritime transit will doubtless some day bear its 

 legitimate fruit in the actual undertaking of a canal across 

 one of the many routes surveyed by American and other 

 engineers, although but little progress towards its solution 

 has lately been made. The subject appears lately to have 

 been attracting a considerable share of attention in France, 

 the interest being at present centred upon the Darien route. 

 De Lesseps, whose name figures prominently in the present 

 discussion of this important project, advocates a line ascend- 

 ing the Tuyra or Darien River from the Pacific side as far as 

 the island of Piriaque, from which point a straight cutting, 

 16,200 meters long, will connect the Tuyra with the Chucu- 

 naque near the point where the Tupisa flows into this lat- 

 ter river. The line proposed would then ascend the Chucu- 

 naque for 11,400 meters; then, turning to the northeast, 

 would continue up the valley of the Tiati to a point where 

 its projector, for reasons of economy, proposes to construct 

 a tunnel rather than continue a deep cutting. This tun- 

 nel would pass to the south of the Peak of Ganol, un- 

 der the remarkable ridge from which, on the one side, the 

 Taquesa, the Tupisa, and the Tiati flow down towards the 

 Pacific, and, on the other, the Tolo and the Acanti to the At- 

 lantic. On emerging, the canal would continue through an 

 open cutting about ten kilometers long down the valleys of 

 the Acanti and Tolo to the deep waters of Port Candi. The 

 probable length of the tunnel is estimated at between thir- 

 teen and fourteen kilometers, and the cost of making the 

 whole canal at 000,000,000 francs (about $120,000,000). A 

 surveying party, under the command of Lieutenant Wyse, of 

 the French navy, is at present on the ground, working out 

 the feasibility of the proposed route. 



I raving solicited of Mr. John C. Trautwine, a gentleman 



