H4 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



and published in that paper. President Salgar is informed 

 by Captain Selfridge that the expedition, composed of two 

 vessels of the United States navy, left New York in January, 

 1870, and arrived in the Bay of Caledonia in the month of 

 February following, a vessel of the Pacific squadron having 

 been sent to co-operate on the Pacific coast. 



From the port of Caledonia and from the port of Sarsardi 

 observations were made on two lines, which terminated on 

 the coast of the Pacific in the confluences of the rivers Saba- 

 na and Lara. Both these, however, were found to be imprac- 

 ticable for a ship canal, the Cordilleras being at no point less 

 than 1000 feet in altitude, while the breadth of the mountain 

 rendered the construction of tunnels impossible, even if there 

 had been enough water to furnish the necessary lockage. 



The expedition then sailed for the Bay of San Bias in the 

 latter part of April, 1870, and surveyed a route which, across 

 the narrowest part of the isthmus, measured only twenty-six 

 miles, from the Atlantic to the navigable river Bayamo. The 

 results were equally unfavorable along this line, the lowest 

 level of the Cordilleras bein<? found to be 1134 feet, with 

 heights of 800 feet on either side ; and the construction of a 

 canal by this route was considered even more impracticable 

 than by those just referred to. 



In consequence of the approach of the rainy season the ex- 

 pedition ceased its labors, and sailed for New York on the 

 10th of June, 1870. 



The surveys were again resumed on the part of the United 

 States in December, and reached the mouth of the Atrato 

 River on the 30th of the same month. The explorations of 

 1871 were intended to embrace routes which follow certain 

 tributaries of the Atrato, as well as a line said to have been 

 discovered by M. De Puydt, a Frenchman, who maintained 

 that at no point w r as there an elevation of more than about 

 250 feet. Careful exploration, however, with an exact mer- 

 curial barometer, showed an altitude of 750 feet in the valley 

 of Tuncla before reaching the Cordilleras. The expedition 

 then directed its principal efforts to the exploration of a line 

 beginning at the Atrato, and following the valley of the Par- 

 anchita (a tributary of the Cacarica), crossing the Cordillera 

 of Cue, down stream, and from that point to Penogama, and 

 thence to a navigable point. The total length proved to be 



