PANAMA SHIP CANAL. 23 



but, to judge from the appearance of its banks and 

 the extensive mangrove swamps on either side, it 

 appears to bear down a great amount of fine alluvial 

 mud, which, if discharged into the canal, must be a 

 source of future difficulty. What chiefly struck the 

 eye of the passing traveller was the broad band which 

 had been cleared across the isthmus to mark the line 

 of the future canal. It is fully a hundred metres in 

 width, and seemingly carried in a nearly straight line 

 through the forest and over the hills that lie on the 

 western side near to Panama. This clearing does 

 not appear a very serious undertaking, but in a region 

 where the energy of vegetation is so marvellous, 

 must have cost an immense amount of labour, and to 

 keep the line open, if that be found expedient, will 

 demand no small yearly expenditure. There is here, 

 properly speaking, no dry season. The rains recur at 

 frequent intervals throughout the year, and to keep 

 back the ever-encroaching sea of vegetation the axe 

 is in constant requisition. 



In the interest of the human race, it is impossible 

 not to desire the success of the Ship Canal, but it 

 must not be forgotten that the project is of a character 

 so gigantic that all previous experience, such as that 

 of the Suez Canal, fails to give a measure of the 

 difficulties to be encountered, or of the outlay required 

 to overcome them. Engineers may doubtless calculate 

 with sufficient accuracy the number of millions of 

 cubic yards of rock or earth that must be removed, 

 and may estimate approximately the cost of labour 

 and materials ; but the obstacles due to the climate and 

 physical conditions of this region are a formidable 



