194- RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



others, its length being only 33 miles, but of this 

 nine miles were tunnel, while the river Bayano had to 

 be diverted from its course, so that the Technical Com- 

 mission felt bound to reject it. 



Upon the other hand, the Commission examined 

 with the utmost care and interest the remarkable 

 researches of an officer of the American navy, whose 

 name I have already mentioned, Commander Self- 

 ridge. The Selfridge scheme followed the Darien 

 Isthmus and the Atrato Eiver, which it was to canalize 

 for a distance of 150 miles, and it then made a sharp 

 bend southward, and reached the bay of Chiri-Chiri 

 by a cutting and a tunnel two and a-half miles long. 

 But the question was, whether this Atrato Eiver, the 

 mouth of which formed a vast and marshy delta, could 

 be so deepened as to ensure over twenty-five feet of 

 water at its bar, and, if so, how this depth of water 

 was to be maintained ? Then, again, it was difficult 

 to see how the risings of the Atrato were to be fore- 

 seen, and their effects alleviated, so that the Com- 

 mission felt compelled to reject Commander Selfridge' s 

 scheme. 



The Commission also examined, just as it was about 

 to break up, a scheme which its author, M. de Puydt, 

 produced without any documentary evidence to back 

 it up, and which proposed to cut the canal through 

 Darien, from Puerto Eseondido to Thuyra. The 

 watershed by this route was the pass of Tanela Paya, 

 the slope of which, according to M. de Puydt, is only 



