174 THH NICARAGUA CANAL. 
seaward from that port. The estimate of the amount of 
tonnage passing through the Nicaragua canal when first 
opened, was about four millions of tons per year. This 
estimate, the mean of several reliable calculations by emi- 
nent experts, was based upon the figures of the world’s 
shipping trade in 1870. It may now, with justice, be 
raised to five millions of tons. Upon this tonnage, at 
the rate of two dollars fifty cents per ton, which is 
about the rate of toll through the Suez canal, twelve 
million five hundred thousand dollars would be the 
gross annual revenue. In the estimates for a Nicaragua 
canal, five hundred thousand dollars has been allowed 
for the working expenses annually, and this would 
leave a net revenue of twelve million dollars with which 
to pay the interest upon the cost of construction. What 
that cost would be is known quite closely in the case of 
Nicaragua. Work will not be started here in the 
ignorance which marked de Lesseps’ beginning at 
Panama. Careful instrumental surveys have been made, 
borings have been sunk, both by land and water, to 
learn the quality of the cube to be excavated, and where 
obstacles have prevented exact Knowledge, the cubes 
have been estimated for as solid rock. The estimate 
for a canal at Nicaragua, larger than that at Suez, is 
about fifty million dollars, and to this fifty per cent. has 
been added for all contingencies, making seventy-five 
million doilars. 
Though many able engineers believe that it can be 
built for much less, I believe that sum will represent very 
closely its total cost. What Captain Eads’ project of a 
ship railway will cost, no one seems to know. His idea 
is so problematic that no reliable estimate can be formed. 
Seventy-five millions is mentioned by Captain Eads. 
Careful surveys will no doubt make the estimate much 
greater, especially when we consider the costly equip- 
ment needed to carry its heavy burdens. But if it cost 
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