THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL. 181 



submitted to the international jury, and received its 

 approval. 



ii. 



The base of the problem to be solved was, as I have 

 already said, the maritime traffic which it was neces- 

 cessary to attract. 



In the Statistical Commission, the principal repre- 

 sentatives of the American States and the adminis- 

 trators of the great maritime companies met under 

 the presidency of Signor Mendes Leal. They first 

 proceeded to examine the results of the working of 

 the Suez Canal, which had then been open for ten 

 years, and they asked for a report on this subject 

 from M. Fontane, the Secretary-General of the Suez 

 Canal Company, whose report made a deep impres- 

 sion upon the Congress. M. Fontane proved, figures 

 in hand, that an annual traffic of six million tons 

 was only possible in a canal through which fifty 

 ships could pass in the twenty-four hours. " This was 

 why it was necessary," added M. Fontane, "in making 

 the Suez Canal to adopt the system of a canal on one 

 level without locks or drawbacks, to the exclusion of 

 several very ingenious and bold plans presented by 

 engineers of great repute." These views, which were 

 the outcome of long and well-grounded experience, 

 could not but have a marked effect on the minds of 

 the members of the Assembly in respect to the choice 

 which they had to make among the various systems 

 submitted to them. 



