518 



SCIENCE. 



fVoL. VIII., No. 200 



Celler, were sent out to survey the isthmus and 

 judge of the relative merits of the various regions 

 suggested as suitable for the construction of a 

 canal. After three years of incessant toil, they re- 

 turned to Paris to give an account of their mission. 

 Another congress met at Paris in 1879, and, after 

 careful examination and consideration of all the 

 proposed schemes, decided by a majority of sev- 

 enty-eight that the canal should be constructed 

 between Aspinwall and Panama, without tunnel=! 

 or locks, from ocean to ocean. The routes by 

 Tehuantepec, by Nicaragua, by Atratoand Napipi. 

 by Darien (the pro- 

 posal of San Bias), 

 were, on the report 

 of M. Voisin-Bey, 

 rejected as unsuit- 

 able on account of 

 technical difi&cul- 

 ties. The cost was 

 estimated by the 

 commission of the 

 congress at £44,- 

 585,000, exclusive 

 of the interest on 

 the capital en- 

 gaged. 



The route of the 

 new waterway will 

 be from the east 

 side of the Bay of 

 Limon on the At- 

 lantic coast, by the 

 valleys of the Cha- 

 gres, the Obispo, 

 and the Rio Grande 

 to the Bay of Pana- 

 ma, entering the 

 Pacific near the 

 islands of Naos and 

 Clamenca. Its total 

 length will be 73 

 kilometres, or 45 

 miles, and, like the 

 Suez canal, it will 



be absolutely open and unobstructed throughout. 

 On the Pacific side a dock will be constructed so as 

 to insure free communication with the ocean at 

 all hours and all states of the tide. The width of 

 the cutting at the bottom will be 72 feet ; at the 

 water-level it will be 164 feet in soil and 105 in 

 rock ; its average depth, 30 feet below the mean 

 level of the oceans. There will be two ports, 

 Colon and Panama, and a dam will be constructed 

 at Gamboa to regulate the waters of the Chagres. 

 At Colon or Aspinwall the company has re- 

 claimed from the sea a large tract of land, where 



a new town has been built, named after Chris- 

 topher Columbus. The streets are wide and 

 regular, affording free play to the fresh sea- 

 breezes ; and here a number of the officials of 

 the company are already located in commodious 

 dwellings. 



The cutting of the canal presents no difficulty for 

 the first fifteen miles after leaving Colon. For that 

 distance, as also from the sixty-second (38^ miles) 

 to the seventy -third kilometre (45 miles), the soil 

 consists chiefly of clay and mud ; so that for 21i 

 miles operations may be carried on by means 



of dredging, the 

 cheapest and most 

 expeditious mode 

 of excavation. 

 From the twenty- 

 fourth (15 miles) to 

 the thirty-fifth (21i 

 miles) kilometre no 

 serious obstacle to 

 progress occurs, 

 but between the 

 thirty-fifth and 

 sixty-second kilo- 

 metres it will be 

 necessary in great 

 measure to carry 

 on the work by 

 means of dyna- 

 mite. 



The port at As- 

 pinwall is already 

 nearly completed, 

 and that at Pana- 

 ma presents no 

 technical difficul- 

 ties. Outside the 

 latter there will be 

 ' roads ' formed by 

 a maritime chan- 

 nel, where vessels 

 may lie previous to 

 entering the canal. 

 The left bank of 

 this channel can easily be made to comnmnicate 

 by road with the Panama railway. At Panama 

 the company has acquired land favorably situated 

 for the construction of wet and dry docks, dock- 

 yards, and warehouses, and all the adjuncts neces- 

 sary to the maintenance of an extensive mercantile 

 and shipping industry. 



From fifteen to twenty thousand workmen, 

 mostly from Jamaica, Colombia, and the Antilles, 

 are already emj^loyed on the canal banks, and this 

 number could easily be doubled. The construc- 

 tion of the banks has been intrusted to a number 



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II 



