INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1875. ccxlix 



yanos route as would test the practicability of a ship-canal 

 line from the mouth of that river to the capacious harbor 

 of San Bias on the Pacific. This last was proved to be 

 " hopelessly impracticable." 



Across the Isthmus of Panama a feasible line was located. 

 Total length, 41.7 miles; summit level, 129 feet; locks re- 

 quired, 12 on each side, and a tide lock at Panama; supply 

 of water ample, to be obtained by a feeder from the River 

 Chagres ; estimated cost, $80,000,000. In connection, how- 

 ever, with any estimate for a line across this part of the isth- 

 mus, it must be remembered that it will be located within 

 the section to which, under the renewed contract with the 

 government of New Granada, the Panama Railroad Com- 

 pany has an exclusive right for canal or railroad. 



All the explorations and surveys made on the American 

 isthmus by our government during the last five years, viz., 

 by Commodore Shufeldt across Tehuantepec ; by Command- 

 er Lull across Nicaragua, Panama, and in Darien ; and by 

 Commander Selfridge and Lieutenant Collins on the Atrato 

 route, have been referred by the President to a commission 

 of engineers for examination and report upon their respective 

 merits. This commission, composed of Major-General A. A. 

 Humphreys, chief of Engineers ; Commodore Daniel Ammen, 

 chief of the Bureau of Navigation ; and Captain C. P. Patter- 

 son, superintendent of the Coast Survey, will probably report 

 on the whole subject at the coming session of Congress.* Mr. 

 A. G. Menocal, C. E., who was Commander Lull's engineer on 

 both of his expeditions, is now prosecuting inquiries at Grey- 

 town for the Nicaraguan government in reference to the 

 work.f It is of interest, in connection with this subject, to 

 notice that, after so many expeditions up and down the isth- 

 mus, the route now most favorably regarded should be be- 

 tween the two points of the isthmian region with which en- 

 gineers have been quite familiar for the past twenty- five 

 years. The interest of the local governments in the success- 

 ful issue of the ship-canal project is manifested in the send- 



* This commission has, since the above was written, reported in favor of 

 the Nicaragua route. Ed. 



t For valuable information on this subject we are indebted to Professor J. 

 E. Nourse, of the United States Naval Observatory, Washington, D. C, than 

 whom the interoceanic canal enterprise has no abler advocate. Ed. 



11* 



