INTEROCEANIG CANAL ROUTES. 381 



and on my own responsibility that I offer you my solution and the 

 following explanations. 



I shall examine successively the various plans for lock-canals, show- 

 ing which one seems to me to be the best, if such a system should be 

 regarded as most advantageous. 



I shall compare, in the same way, the projects for a tide-level canal. 

 Finally, I shall compare the best plan for a lock canal with the best 

 one for a tide-level canal. 



[Peixcipal Projected Routes of the Interoceanic Canal ex- 

 amined BY THE International Congress, (See map on the follow- 

 ing page.) 



1. Plan hy the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Length, 148 miles ; num- 

 ber of locks, 120 ; time for passage, twelve days. 



2. Plan by the Lake of Nicaragua. Length, 180 miles; number 

 of locks, 17 ; time for passage, four and a half days. 



3. Pkm for Level-water and Deep-cut Canal by the Isthmus of 

 Panama. Length, 45 miles ; time for passage, two days. 



4. Plan by the Isthmus of San Bias. Length, 33 miles ; time for 

 passage, one day, 



5. Plan by Atrato-Napipi. Length, 179 miles ; number of locks, 

 3 ; time for passage, three days. — Editor.] 



Comparison of the Different Plans for a Lock-Canal. — I shall 

 at once refuse a canal by the line of Tehuantepec, although it seems to 

 me to be one of the easiest to be constructed : but it would demand a 

 great number of locks ; the passage through it would take a great deal 

 of time comparatively ; and, moreover, the canal would pass through a 

 country which, from the unstable nature of the soil, is very undesirable 

 for such a work. We have been told, I am aware, that these " move- 

 ments," which I hardly dare to call earthquakes, were not to be feared ; 

 that during these " movements," to which the inhabitants of the coun- 

 try are well accustomed, sometimes in the walls of houses and of pub- 

 lic buildings, cracks would appear wide enough for the light to be 

 seen through them, but soon these cracks would be closed to crevices, 

 mere lines, and that then the buildings threatened for the time would 

 again become solid until there was a new " movement." These expla- 

 nations do not entirely satisfy me, and I admit that such possibilities 

 seem to me very objectionable for a canal with locks ; simple crevices 

 in the lateral walls, especially in the raised portions, would seriously 

 compromise the working of the gates, and might necessitate, when 

 least expected, long and costly repairs, and, what is more serious still, 

 interrupt for a number of days, entire months perhaps, the passage of 

 ships. Can one, therefore, readily imagine what would happen if 

 fleets of vessels, becoming more numerous every day, should find them- 

 selves stopped in their passage, some on the Pacific and others on the 

 Atlantic side, and compelled, in order to reach their destination, to 

 continue their journey by Cape Horn or the Straits of Magellan, to 



