HENRY C. TAYLOR. Wal 
Nicaragua, the guano of Peru, the lumber of Alaska, 
the grain of California, meeting the cotton of our south, 
the manufactures of the United States and Europe! 
What factories, mills, ship-building industries may we 
not see in the near future along the line of the canal and 
upon the great lake itself ! 
The mind grows weary in reviewing the long array of 
possibilities which nature, in its kindest mood, has 
placed in this favored spot for the use of man. 
_ Referring briefly to the lines in Costa Rica and Hon- 
duras, the former connecting Chiriqui lagoon with the 
gulf of Dulec, and the latter crossing from the bay of 
Honduras to the bay of Fonseca, they may be summed 
up by stating that excellent locations for railways were 
found here, with good harbors at the termini, but that 
the elevation of the mountain range in this vicinity 
made canals impossible. 
Passing on still farther to the north and west, we 
come to the last of the isthmuses, that of Tehuantepec. 
Cortez satisfied himself with regard to its usefulness 
as a land transit, and sent by that line much of the 
equipment arriving from Europe for his Pacific fleets 
fitting out for exploration and conquest. Later on, 
when no longer used, the world fell again into ignorance 
concerning it, and the ancient legends of a strait exist- 
ing here gained a fresh credence until as late as the 
middle of the last century. In our own time, the 
scramble to get to California in 1849 caused it to be 
used once more, and to the routes known as ‘‘ around 
the horn,’’ ‘‘across the isthmus,” ‘‘ over the plains,” 
was added this one under the name of ‘‘ through 
Mexico.” 
This route demands at my hands something more than 
a passing notice, for in our present congress vigorous 
efforts are being made by Captain Eads to obtain gov- 
ernment assistance for a project to carry ships from 
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