HENRY C. TAYLOR. 17/33 
through the bow or stern ports, in a dock arranged to 
float the ship higher or lower, as needed, in order to 
bring its decks in succession at the level of the shore 
tracks 
These cars would be run across a cheaply constructed 
narrow-guage railway, and run into the hold of a ship 
on the other side of the isthmus, fitted in the same way 
to receive them. 
Some little stowage space would, of course, be lost, 
but this loss would be slight compared with the enor- 
mous tolls each vessel would have to pay to allow divi- 
dends on the expensive railway needed to carry bodily 
a large vessel and her cargo. 
Ido not claim that this is a specially good project ; 
but only that it is one of many plans which are more 
feasible, economical, and sensible than Captain Eads’ 
present scheme. 
These remarks, to which you have kindly listened, 
will have shown to you that only three localities have 
been considered as worthy of being tried: Panama, 
Nicaragua, and Tehauntepec. You will also have dis- 
covered that some persons, myself among the number, 
believe Nicaragua the only route for efficiency and econ- 
omy. Did nature, however, offer opportunities for 
constructing canals at each of these localities, they 
would all be more or less favorable for the use of com- 
merce, compared with the long and expensive voyage 
around the cape of Good Hope or the Horn. Tehaun- 
tepec would best serve the coastwise traffic which would 
be established between the gulf of Mexico and our Pacific 
states. For all other traffic of this country and of mari- 
time nations generally, the more southern routes would 
be preferable, and between the two, Panama and Nicara- 
cua, Panama would be avoided by a large proportion of 
the traffic, namely, the sailing ships, owing to the con- 
tinuous calms which prevail for hundreds of miles to 
57 
