6o 



NATURE 



\May 15, 1879 



piercing of the American isthmus was seriously discussed. 

 Under the presidency of M. De Lesseps an international 

 jury was appointed to decide upon the best track and to 

 give its opinion on the financial and economical possi- 

 bility of the execution of the scheme. It was resolved to 

 postpone the meeting of the grand jury until after the 

 exploration of the Paya-Caquirri Hne. In less than a year 

 a society of exploration was constituted, the capital sub- 

 scribed, the concession of a canal obtained from the Go- 

 vernment of Columbia, and towards the end of 1876 an 

 expedition set out from France for the Isthmus of Darien 

 under the command of Lieut. Wyse. From that time till 

 a few months ago, Lieut. Wyse, with the aid of Lieut. 

 Reclus, M. Sosa, and a staff of engineers, surveyors, &c., 

 has been carrying on his explorations in various parts of 

 the isthmus, so that now a vast quantity of data has been 

 collected, and will be brought before the Congress which 

 meets to-day. Whatever decision the Congress may 

 come to on the immediate subject under discussion, the 

 value of these, as well as previous explorations in connec- 



tion with an inter-oceanic canal, are very great ""so far as 

 our knowledge of Central America is concerned. They 

 have added much to the scanty information we had on 

 the physical geography, hydrography, fauna and flora of 

 the region explored. 



Not to go farther back, the first serious work of the 

 isthmus in recent years, with a view to the construction 

 of a canal, seems to have been undertaken by the French 

 engineer. Napoleon Garella, who in 1843 explored the 

 isthmus of Panama, and proposed a canal with locks and 

 a tunnel from Simon Bay, in the Atlantic, to the Bay of 

 Vaca de Monte, in the Pacific. But it has been the 

 United States which, until the French Expedition, has 

 been most earnest in the task of endeavouring to find a 

 practicable route for such a canal, as, on the face of it, to 

 them, in spite of their trans-continental railway, it would 

 be of immense commercial advantage. It would reduce 

 by more than half the sailing distance between their east 

 and west coasts. Therefore since 1 850 numerous expedi- 

 tions have been sent out by the U.S. Government to 



Central American Isthmus. The Longitudes are reckoned from Paris. 



explore the isthmus with this view. In this way have 

 surveying expeditions visited Nicaragua (1850), the pas- 

 sages between the Atrato and the Pacific, by the San 

 Juan, the Baudo, and Cupica Bay (1850-51), the isthmus 

 of San Bias, the narrowest part of Central America (1854), 

 Humboldt Bay, and the Atrato, by the Truando Valley 

 (1858-59), the Paya and the Atrato (1865). As none of 

 these had satisfactory results, the United States Govern- 

 ment resolved to send out a large and thoroughly 

 equipped expedition, once for all to settle the question. 

 For three years the expedition carried on its work, with 

 excellent results so far as science is concerned. Tehuan- 

 tepec was explored by Commodore Schufeldt, Nicaragua 

 by Commodores Hatfield and Lull, Panama by Lull, 

 Isthmus of San Bias, that of Darien, between the 

 Sabana and the Bay of Caledonia, and between the 

 Tuyra and the Atrato, by Commander Selfridgc, the 

 Atrato-Napipi by Selfridge and Collins. This expe- 

 dition did not contemplate any other kind of canal 

 than one with locks, and moreover did not examine the 

 whole of the passage of the Paya, an afifluent of the 



Tuyra, 

 This 



examined in part by M. de Lacharme in i86j. 

 was the state of matters when Lieut. Wyses 

 expedition entered upon the field, one of his chief objects 

 being to examine thoroughly the passage from the Rio 

 Paya to the Rio Caquirri, an affluent of the Atrato, and 

 to discover if it were not possible to construct a canal on 

 a level throughout, dispensing with locks, and construct- 

 ing instead one or more tunnels. Lieut. Wyse and his 

 colleague, Lieut. Reclus, point out the many advantages' 

 a level canal has over one with sluices, and by one or 

 more of the routes they think such a canal could be con- 

 structed, and make light of the construction of a tunnel. 

 The passages explored by Lieut. Wyse's expedition were 

 those between the end of the Gulf of Uraba and the Gulf 

 of San Miguel ; from Acanti at the mouth of Uraba Gulf 

 to San Miguel Gulf ; from San Bias Bay to Chepillo 

 Roads and the head of the Gulf of Panama ; from 

 Simon Bay to Panama Roads ; and from Greytown to 

 Brito Creek. 



The following is a summary of the various schemes 

 that are to be brought under the consideration of the 



