790 



EEPOUT — 1884. 



tial persons can doubt tbe justice of the conclusion of the late Admiral Heclicr aud 

 of Mr. Major as to its identity; tlicrc are diiliculties in the interpretation (-]' 

 Columbus' lo}? on any liypothesis, but there is one little ' undcsiirned coiiicitlencf' 

 which to luy mind f^oes tar to carry cunvietion. ( 'oluiubus, wlieii he si^'hted land, 

 was greatly in want of water, and ho cdntinued cruisiiif,'' about aiuonfi' the small 

 islands in searcli of it for some days. Ch'arly, therefore, the lai/una on (iuanali;iiii 

 was not a fresh-water lake ; nor is t lie lagoon on W'atling l.-land fresh Wiiter, aiii] 

 80 it exactly meets the case. 



(i. TlieVeporr of Lieutenant Kaynioml I'. IJodgers, of the United States Nnw, n:i 

 the state of tlie canal works at Tanama so lately as January 25 last,, wiiifll has 

 doubtless been eagerly read by nniny present, leaves me little to say on that {rrcat 

 enterpri.se. Perhaps the following olllcial returns of the amount of excavation 

 effecti'd in cubic metres (a cubic metro is l'.">08 cubic yards) will enable tin.' 

 audience to realise its progress : — 



iss;! 



doui' 



in a length of 4('c0 miles is esti- 

 rnpid augmentation of fpiantitv 



The total quantity of excavation to be 

 edited at 100 millions of cubic metres, luit thr 



shows that the limit has not licen attained. Tliis is no place to speak" of tli"' 

 stimulus given by this great work to mechanical invention or the gi;. ,intic power 

 of titc machines emitloyed, whicli will probably receive attention in another section, 

 but 1 may mention the two great problems which still await s(dution. The tiij' 

 is how to deal with the watei-s of the river (Jhagres: the .--econd is how to n anajre 

 a cutting nearly 400 It. deep (110m. to li'Om.). The (,'hagres is a river as lariri' 

 a.s the Seine, but suliject to great lluct nations (d" volume: it cuts the line of tlif 

 canal nearly at right angles, and for oljvious reasons it is impossible to let it Hdw 

 into it. It is pro])osed to arrest the stream by an enormous dylce at Gaiiiljoa, 

 near t'le divide. It will cross n valley between two hills, ami be 1,000 yards ImiL' 

 at the bottom, 2,110 yards at the top, 110 yards thick at the base, and 147 ft. in 

 greatest height. Out of the reservoir so constructed it is proposed to lead tlu' 

 overflow by two artificiid channels, partly utilising the old bed. The cut tinjr will 

 be nearly 500 ft. wide at (he top ( 150 ni.). with sides at a .slope of ]. It is pro- 

 posed to attack it by gangs or pni-ties working on twelve ditfereut levels at the 

 same tinu', one each side of the summit, dividing the widtn at each level iutu 

 five parallel sections. Thus there will be 120 gangs at worl; together, and it i.< 

 coididently hojied that the whole will lie re.-dly finishe(l in 188.S, the date I'li;' 

 since as-igned iVu- its coninletion by ^I, de Le.sseps. '{'here is ])ractically no otker 

 project now comjietiiig with it : I'nr the proposed routes l)y the Istliniu.s nf 

 Tehuantepec, th(> Atrato, and San Blav may be regai-ded as almost universally 

 given np ; both the latter woidd involve the construction of ship tunnel.i on ;i 

 scale to daunt the lioldest engineer. 'I'he po-onlled ( 'aledonia route has not .-vooJ 

 the test of examination. There remains but the Ni<-aragua route, and this, while 

 practicable enough, has failed to attract ca])italist.s, and is environed liy pohtiml 

 and other difliculties, which would leave it, if completed, under many disadvantage" 

 as compared with it* rival. Among the hitter must be named the nece.s.sity for 

 rising by locks to the level of the fiake of Nicaragua { JOS feel). 



It is very tempting to sj)ecu!ate on the ))robable consefiuence.-- of bringing the 

 irispano-Indian n^publics borderinu' on the Pacific into such early contact with the 

 energies of the Old World, l)ut the.-^e speculations belong to politics rather than 

 geography; moral transformations, we know, are not elfected so ea.:i]y as the 

 conquest over (ihysical diiliculties. 



7. Let us now turn to anotlier quarter. This meeting cannot fail to .^harethe 

 pride and satisfaction with which the IJoyal (ieogrnplucal Society regards the 

 execution by Mr. Joseph 'i'homson uf the important mi.ssions iutiusted to himla.it 

 year, in l-'.ast Africa, and to share my regret nbso, that he is not here to receive 



