68 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



and for two centuries persistently sought and held territory 

 near the mouth of the San Juan River, while American inu-i-- 

 est has always been especially alive to its feasibility and 

 importance. 



III. The Panama Route from Colon, or Aspinwall, on 

 the Caribbean Sea, to Panama on the Pacific. 



IV. The San Bias Route from the Harbor of San Bias to- 

 the mouth of the Rio Chepo on the Pacific. 



V. The Caledonian Route, across the isthmus of Darien,. 

 fro%i Caledonian Bay on the Atlantic side to the Gulf of San 

 Miguel. This is the narrowest point of land separating the 

 great oceans to be found between the arctic circle and Cape 

 Horn. 



To the Panama Route nature has contributed much 

 toward the possibility of constructing the work. There is- 

 here a depression in the mountain range, the great Cordillera 

 of the Americas, furnishing a pass only 284 feet above the 

 .tide. The distance from sea to sea is scarcely fifty miles,, 

 and there are suitable harbors on either side. The ad- 

 vantages of a canal operated throughout upon sea levels, 

 thus avoiding the complications and inconveniences of locks r 

 are so very great that one turns away from Panama with 

 reluctance. One is inclined to hope that modern scientific 

 ingenuity may yet find means to surmount the obstacles pre- 

 sented by the floods of the Chagres River, the yielding sands- 

 and soils of the isthmus, and the deadly climate of Colon 

 and Panama. The other two routes near Panama were once 

 supposed to be practicable, but careful surveys by more accu- 

 rate or less partial engineers have demonstrated the fact that, 

 the mountain ranges crossing them present almost insur- 

 mountable barriers against the construction of a canal. 



VI. Tfie Atrato Route. The Atrato River has its rise in 

 Colombia, on the eastern slope of the Andes, and flows north- 

 about two hundred miles, close to the foot of this great range 

 of mountains, finally debouching into the Gulf of Darien. 

 So fearful was Philip II of Spain that the Atrato River might 

 furnish to his enemies the coveted opening to the Pacific, and 

 thereby destroy the profits of his carrying trade by wagon road. 



