1889. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 173 
‘The testimony on this subject is so overwhelming and conclu- 
sive in its character that the committee has no hesitation in re- 
porting that the construction of a ship-railway and its successful 
operation are entirely practicable.” The Senate committee, 
after quoting at considerable. length from a very interesting re- 
port thata Congressional committee had already made on the 
subject, —a report which especially pointed out the immense ad- 
vantages which the people of the United States would derive 
should the gateway across the isthmus be at ‘Tehuantepec rather 
than at Nicaragua or Panama,—added the following statement: 
‘“‘The committee has considered the testimony taken before the 
House committee, and fully indorse the statement that Tehuan- 
tepec is the American route, and that the transit-way should by 
all means be located there in preference to any other point upon 
the isthmus.” 
In connection with the Senate report just quoted, it is inter- 
esting to observe that President Cleveland, in his Annual Mes- 
sage dated December 8th, 1885, alluding to Hads’ ship-railway, 
somewhat incidentally said: ‘‘The Tehuantepec route is de- 
clared, by engineers of the highest repute and by competent sci- 
entists, to afford an entirely practicable transit for vessels and 
cargoes, by means of a ship-railway from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific.” Such a statement, which had been made by a committee 
of Congress, must have been very gratifying to Eads. 
Captain Eads wished the United States Government, as well 
as the Government of Mexico, to aid in the construction of the 
ship-railway by guaranteeing a limited amount of interest on the 
money spent in construction. This ‘money, however, was to 
be but practically a loan. The Government of the United 
States was to receive in various ways very valuable concessions 
from the railway company. One important feature of Hads’ 
project was that the United States Government was not to pay 
any money in aiding the ship-railway company, unless the latter 
should successfully carry out its contract to transport over the 
railway in a specified manner vessels of a given tonnage. Unless 
the ship-railway accomplished all that it agreed to do, it was to 
receive no aid from our Government. 
It was not given to Eads to see his great project in active ope- 
ration. Some of us, let us hope, will live to have that pleasure. 
Eads’ ship-railway is designed to transport in a day a far larger 
- number of vessels than can an interoceanic canal. It can be 
built much more rapidly than a canal. It can afford, it is be- 
lieved, to transport vessels at less cost than is possible by canal 
navigation. If successful, it will be a means of greatly increas- 
ing the inducements to Americans to build ships, and will in 
various ways call into life many new industries. The people of 
