ENGINEERING. 



253 



way to be realized. The commission appointed 

 by the United States Government to consider 

 Ml>ility, and select the best route, have 

 present -d u final report; and treaties are in 

 prepress with other countries concerning it. 

 Tin- I Mitch have achieved a great engineering 

 snccos in the completion of the North Sea 

 Canal, which makes a seaport of the city of 

 Amsterdam, floating the largest vessels, and 

 allowing direct steamboat communication with 

 foreign ports. The St. Gothard Tunnel is ap- 

 proaching completion ; but its undertakers 

 nave been greatly dismayed by the discovery 

 of an enormous miscalculation in the estimates 

 of cost. Extensive and costly experiments 

 upon the proposed railway-tunnel through the 

 chalk-beds underlying the straits of Dover are 

 undertaken, and will amount to a commence- 

 ment of the work^if it shall be found feasible. 

 In Italy we see the completion of an enterprise 

 which has been pursued 'for many years, by 

 which a large tract of land, submerged for 

 ages, has been recovered to agriculture. Other 

 similar works are proposed for the reclamation 

 of the wide ranges of land which lie waste in 

 that country, covered with disease-generating 

 marshes ; while in Holland a plan is seriously 

 entertained by the Government for the drain- 

 ing and fertilization of the bed of the Zuyder 

 Zee, which would increase the territory of that 

 country about one-sixth, and afford a perma- 

 nent revenue of millions of francs to the Gov- 

 ernment. The long-expected Russian railway 

 across Central Asia has not yet been practically 

 commenced, though the project is gaining 

 favor. In our own country, the great works 

 of river and harbor improvement, which have 

 been carried on by the Government, are still 

 under vigorous prosecution ; the chief results 

 of this year's labors have been the clearing 

 away of Hallett's Reef, one of the most serious 

 obstructions in the East River channel (see 

 article HELL-GATK), and the deepening of the 

 chief outlet of the Mississippi (see below). 



The survey which has been conducted by the 

 commission of the American Government for 

 five years past upon the isthmuses of Panama 

 and Nicaragua, with reference to a ship-canal, 

 has been completed within the year, and final 

 reports have been presented to the President. 

 The route which was found most promising 

 and practicable was one across the Nicaraguan 

 Isthmus, by way of Lake Nicaragua. Four other 

 proposed routes have been carefully examined. 

 The one across the isthmus of Panama, for- 

 merly much thought of, was found to present 

 the greatest difficulties. J. C. Trautwine, chief- 

 engineer of the Panama Railroad, lately ex- 

 pressed an opinion that a canal over that route 

 would cost not less than $800,000,000 ! The 

 survey across the isthmus of Tehuantepeo, 

 under Commodore Shufeldt and Engineer 

 Fuertes, showed that the line proposed by 

 those engineers by way of the river Coatzaco- 

 alcos would require the construction of as 

 many as 140 locks, which, in connection with 



the deficient water-mi pply, wan enough to eon - 

 dt inn the plan. The route between the gulf 

 of San Bias and the river Chepo or Bayanos 

 has been supposed to be a specially desirable 

 one, because the tides from both oceans are 

 nearer together at this point than elsewhere ; 

 but the survey revealed insurmountable diffi- 

 culties, even after an eight-mile tunnel should 

 have been cut. A survey from Caledonia Hay 

 out discovered no puss at a less elevation than 

 1,000 feet. Several other routes which were 

 surveyed showed difficulties still more formi- 

 dable. The Government has expended about 

 $60,000 in this investigation. 



The treaties with foreign powers are to be 

 made on the basis of the Clayton-Bulwer 

 Treaty of 1850, guaranteeing the neutrality of 

 the canal. The estimate of the cost returned 

 by the commission is $65,722,167 ; but several 

 practical engineers, who have examined the 

 route, conjecture thnt obstacles will be en- 

 countered which will increase the cost to 

 nearly $100,000,000. The work cannot be 

 completed in less than five years of hard labor; 

 but if it is sustained by the leading govern- 

 ments, it is supposed that it will not be delayed 

 or abandoned for want of funds. The distance 

 to be excavated is 61f miles, and the total 

 length of the canal, including 53 miles of slack- 

 water navigation, by way of the San Juan 

 River, and 56 miles across Lake Nicaragua, 

 will be 180| miles from ocean to ocean. For 

 a number of years there has been a consider- 

 able and increasing transportation traffic by 

 the way of Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan 

 River. "Whether a ship-canal across the Nica- 

 raguan Isthmus would draw any of Europe's 

 trade with the East from the Snez Canal is 

 doubtful ; but the benefits it would afford to the 

 American trade with the East and the Pacific 

 coast, and the improved communication it 

 would render between the western side of the 

 North and South American Continents, and 

 the whole commercial world, would be much 

 more than commensurate with its cost. 



An American engineer, Henry C. Spalding, 

 has broached a scheme for letting the waters 

 of the Black Sea into the Caspian through an 

 artificial channel-way, thus greatly enlarging 

 the area of the latter sea by the submersion of 

 comparatively sterile tracks, but immensely 

 improving the fertility of the surrounding 

 regions, and giving Russia maritime communi- 

 cation with the commercial world, and a broad 

 sea-coast. His project is to cut a canal, 150 

 metres wide, from a point in the basin of the 

 Caspian Sea, which is 15 metres below the 

 level of the Black Sea, in a westerly direction 

 to such a point that it will have a depth of 10 

 metres ; from there a narrower cutting is to be 

 carried on to the Black Sea. This narrower 

 channel, he calculates, should have a depth of 

 three metres where it strikes the Black Sea, and 

 a width of 50 metres; through this the water 

 would flow with a ve!ocity of 12 kilometres 

 an hour, and, where it gives into the larger 



