ROMESUEZ PANAMA . 151 



engineers and representatives of chambers of com- 

 merce, whose reports will be published and will tell 

 their own tale. Frenchmen alone could do all this 

 without the assistance of government or of capitalists ; 

 they are the most devoted and disinterested people in 

 the world, and they made the Suez as they will make 

 the Panama Canal. We have engineers of the 

 greatest merit, men who are young ; and I like young 

 men, though I am myself an octogenarian. Old age 

 foresees and youth acts. Well, we have in Panama 

 five divisions of engineers, and every one is convinced 

 that we cannot fail to attain the desired end. We 

 have, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, a succession of 

 workshops and sheds, with all the means which are 

 now available for executing works of this kind. We 

 saw whole mountains blown up with dynamite, blocks 

 of stone measuring more than a hundred cubic yards 

 sent up into the air like so many pebbles. We are 

 delighted to be able to state, after the voyage which I 

 have just made, that the canal will be open in 1889. 



