388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



in such a way that the level of the water in the canal will be regulated 

 by that of the Atlantic, which varies but very little. 



With these two modifications that we have pointed out to the plan 

 of Messrs. Wyse and Reclus, and in fixing at four kilometres the great- 

 est length of the tunnel — which can probably be reduced in length 

 when the work is actually in hand, and perhaps be entirely done away 

 with by a deep cut — your first sub-committee, over-estimating perhaps 

 the expense calculated, brings the sum total to somewhat less than 

 eleven hundred million francs, including the interest on the capital 

 embarked during the time of construction, and the working expenses 

 capitalized at five per cent. I feel confident that this figure will not 

 be exceeded, and I am even confident that it will not be reached. In- 

 deed, it is well known that the building of the railroad from Colon 

 (Aspinwall) to Panama did not cost much more than such a work 

 would had it been done in Europe ; and here we shall have to aid us 

 in putting up the great workshops of the canal, at short notice, a rail- 

 road already built, which is in excellent running order from one end 

 to the other, and has a good harbor on either side. 



I have said enough to show, I think — and here is the second point 

 in the programme of my address — that, whatever may be the plan 

 adopted, canal with locks or canal on a tide-level, it is from the Bay 

 of Colon to the Gulf of Panama that it should go. 



Comparison of the Tide-level Canal with the Lock-Canal. — 

 Let us now compare the relative advantages of these two systems. In 

 a technical point of view the preceding discussion would seem to make 

 any further development superfluous. Moreover, have we not heard, in 

 the first sittings of the committee, M. Cotard himself, an advocate, I be- 

 lieve, of the former system, declare without contradiction that, if the 

 tide-level canal was possible and could be made to pay, it would be 

 preferable to one with locks ? Have we not heard and applauded the 

 report of M. Fontane, the General Secretary of the Suez Canal Com- 

 pany, in which he tells you, in behalf of the Committee on Statistics, 

 of which he is a member, that a tide-level canal is the only one that 

 can supply the demands of the navigation of the entire world ? 



After having shown that the construction of a tide-level canal is 

 possible, and under what conditions it is possible and assured, it would 

 only remain to prove that it would pay. Here the fine report of M. 

 Levasseur, in behalf of the Committee on Statistics, a report which 

 you heartily applauded at the last meeting of the Congress, makes my 

 task an easy one. The report declares and proves that, at the time 

 when the canal should be opened, it can reasonably count upon a com- 

 merce of more than seven million tons. Very well, the Suez Canal, 

 which cost almost five hundred million francs, with three million tons 

 only, and subjected to demands which the Interoceanic Canal will not 

 have to undergo, is proposing a diminution of its charges to only seven 

 or eight francs for actual tonnage, a tariff which could easily be dou- 



