ENGINEERING. 333 



whose eminent professional standing and intimate famil- 

 iarity with the physical geography of the whole isthmus 

 entitle his statement to be taken as authoritative, an opin- 

 ion of the route now being explored by the AVyse party, 

 he replied that this undertaking would prove to be an utter 

 failure, and took occasion to reiterate an assertion made 

 by him twenty-five years ago, on returning from his own 

 solitary expedition in search of a route in that region, that 

 there is no reason whatever upon which to base a hope of 

 obtaining a favorable line across any portion of the Darien 

 Isthmus. He insists upon his oft-repeated statement that 

 no route exists that could be executed for less than about 

 8300,000,000. He would reject the temporizing policy 

 which deludes itself with the vain hope of new discovery 

 upon ground that has been surveyed and resurveyed, and 

 face the difficulties of the problem. He favors the cutting 

 of a direct line from the Gulf of San Bias, on the Atlantic, 

 to the mouth of the river Bayano, on the Pacific. This is 

 the shortest route that exists, being only about thirty to 

 thirty-five miles long: it would, however, require a ship-tun- 

 nel possibly ten miles long. 



THE MISSISSIPPI JETTIES. 



From the official statements of the government engineers 

 who are commissioned to inspect the work upon the jetties 

 at South Pass, substantial progress appears to have been 

 made during the past year; and everything appears to indi- 

 cate the complete ultimate success of the undertaking and 

 the triumph of the views of its advocates. From the latest 

 published report of Captain Eads to the South Pass Jetty 

 Company, we abridge the following concerning the more 

 important results obtained. After a preamble relating the 

 difficulties of the task, and affirming that the theories upon 

 which the system of working was undertaken have been 

 fully confirmed, the report announces that the concentration 

 of the water flowing across the sand-bar at the mouth of the 

 Pass by the jetties has created a channel over two hundred 

 feet wide, and in no place less than twenty feet deep, where 

 only about eight feet had previously existed ; that the con- 

 centration of the water flowing over the shoal in the river 

 at the head of the Pass created a channel over four hundred 



