THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL. 175 



upon the researches into the piercing of the American 

 canal. For it is within the last fifteen years that so 

 many bodies of explorers have gone out to investigate 

 the nature of the work, and have come back loaded 

 with valuable information calculated to throw light 

 upon this intricate question. All honour to them 

 for their zeal in assisting science to make this 

 great step forward. At the same time, geogra- 

 phical studies which had been so much neglected 

 in France, had, as a result of the war of 1870, which 

 showed how necessary they were, again occupied 

 public attention, and the learned societies which had 

 inscribed geography in their programme commanded 

 plenty of support. 



Thus at the Antwerp International Congress, 

 General Heine propounded the interoceanic scheme 

 due to M. de Gogorza, and at the Paris Congress in 

 1875 the same subject occupied several sittings when 

 I was in the chair. The information necessary for 

 discussing the question in detail was not then forth- 

 coming, and all that could be done was to express 

 approval of the principle and convoke for a near date 

 a special congress, or, it should rather be said, an 

 international jury, to collect and collate all the neces- 

 sary documents, and to form a definite opinion, after 

 full deliberation, as to the technical and financial 

 possibility of the work. 



This resolution had the effect of giving a fresh, 

 impetus to the explorers and the authors of the scheme, 



