HENRY ©. TAYLOR. WO, 
failure, made it improbable that a canal of any kind 
can, during this century, be made successfully at 
Panama. 
The route for a canal with locks through Nicaragua, 
using the lake as a summit level, presents itself most 
favorably, both as an engineering and an economical 
problem ; a scheme which, as far as we can judge, seems 
specially favored by nature. 
The line by way of the isthmus of Tehuantepec, if a 
canal were possibie there, would commend itself to the 
commercial interests of the United States on account of 
its northern location, making the transit between our 
gulf and Pacific states a most convenient and speedy 
one. So far as is known this water transit cannot be 
provided. The ingenious conception of a famous en- 
gineer may perhaps have there a practical trial, and an 
effort may be made to carry loaded ships of the largest 
size on a railway more than a hundred miles long, and 
which achieves over six hundred feet of elevation in its 
passage between the oceans. 
The ship-railway project is born of a keen desire to 
utilize this isthmus of Tehuantepec for commerce. It 
does not arise from any manifestation of nature in favor 
of its use for purposes of a transit route, More than 
this, the world generally has not asked for a railway, 
but for water transit—for a canal. 
To those, then, who, like myself, are assured of a Nic- 
aragua canal in the future, it may be of interest to con- 
sider it with reference to the United States. We have 
spoken of its importance to our commerce. Let us now 
glance at its value from a military and naval standpoint. 
From a point of view, strategic and political, it may 
be said that if this canal were the southern boundary of 
the United States, our need to hold it would be over- 
whelming and unquestioned. To permit a feeble race of 
people with an uncertain government, such as occupy 
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