THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL. 191 



would have been 182J miles, and the time occupied in 

 going through it four days and a-half. 



The Americans, through the mouthpiece of Admiral 

 Ammen, were very much in favour of this project, 

 which was admirably conceived and propounded by 

 one of their engineers (Menocal). A French engineer, 

 M. Blanchet, proposed to amend it by prolonging the 

 summit-level of the Yalley of San Juan, and by 

 substituting for the seven locks which formed part of 

 the American scheme a large work with 105 feet 

 difference of level, which had been designed by MM. 

 Ponchet and Sauterean, and which one of our most 

 distinguished constructors, M. Eiffel,* was to have 

 carried out. The gates of this lock were to have 

 weighed nearly 1,000 tons, and to have been 23 feet 

 thick. 



Two officers in the French navy, Messrs. Wyse and 

 Eeclus, who had explored the country with great 

 perseverance, presented a scheme for cutting a canal 

 on the level through the Isthmus of Panama, and 

 before they had proceeded far with the explanation of 

 their scheme, it was clear that they had made a deep 

 impression upon the members of the Commission, and 

 that herein lay the solution of the problem. If 

 objections were raised at first, this was rather, it 

 seemed, with the view of disposing of them, so as to 



* Note of the Translator. M. Eiffel is now erecting the iron 

 tower, 1,000 feet high, which is to be one of the features of the 

 Paris Exhibition in 1889. 



