THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 819 



During the wet months there are some phenomenal downpours, 

 with the effect of turning- rivers into torrents, and this is particularly 

 the case with the Chagres River, the principal river of the Republic, 

 which empties into the Caribbean Sea about 8 miles west of Colon. 

 Passing up this river from its mouth, its general course lies southeast 

 for a distance of nearly 30 miles to Obispo. Still passing upstream, 

 its course at this point turns sharpl}' to the northeast. From Obispo 

 for a distance of about 23 miles downstream the course of the Panama 

 Railroad and the line of the proposed canal follow the Chagres River 

 to the lowlands adjoining the Caribbean coast. In the other direction, 

 however, both the railroad and the canal leave the river at Obispo and 

 cut through the continental divide toward Panama, the Panama end of 

 the canal being about 20 miles from Obispo. 



VARIOUS PRO.JECTS FOR A SHIP CANAL. 



At the present time the greatest interest centering on the Republic 

 of Panama, aside from the remarkable unanimity with which the 

 people of the Isthmus as a unit declared and secured their independ- 

 ence through a single, effective, but bloodless effort, is that which 

 attaches to the proposed ship canal connecting the two oceans practi- 

 cally along the line of the Panama Railroad. The project of an 

 isthmian ship canal is almost as old as the discovery of the Isthmus, 

 for it is nearl}' -ioO years ago that the Spaniards themselves seriously 

 discussed this enterprise. As early as 1520 the Spanish monarch, 

 Charles V, directed a survey to be made for the purpose of determin- 

 ing the feasibility of an isthmian ship canal. From that time until 

 this the project of a ship canal across the Isthmus has been actively 

 discussed, although as a result of that early survey the Spanish gov- 

 ernor declared ''that such a work was impracticable, and that no king, 

 however powerful he might be, was capable of forming a junction of 

 the two seas, or of furnishing the means of carrying out such an 

 undertaking." The followers of the Spanish governor were less 

 easily discourged than he. 



The ship-canal enterprise gathered advocates from one centurj- to 

 another, until, during the nineteenth centurj' and the first 3'ears of the 

 twentieth, man}' careful surveys of possible routes across the Isthmus 

 were made. The principal of those lying in the Repul)lic of Panama, 

 beginning with the most easterly, are the Caledonia route, the San 

 Bias route, and the Panama route. The Caledonia route has at times 

 attracted nmch attention on account of the highly colored but a))so- 

 lutely false accounts rendered of it by one or two early explorers. 

 The northern extremity of this route, at Caledonia Bay, is about 165 

 miles east of Colon, and crosses the Isthnuis in the main in a south- 

 westerly direction. The surveys of the Isthmian Canal Commission 

 showed that the elevation of the divide at this point and the heavy 



