PROPOSED NEW ROUTE TO EUROPE. 57 



for snagging the same, $188,000; for continuing survey on same, $50,000; and 

 for the improvement of the Yellowstone tributary, $100,000. 



The magnitude of the interests involved, and the peculiar characteristics of 

 the river, differing as it does from any other in the United States, in the judg- 

 ment of your committee render the appointment of a Missouri River commission, 

 as contemplated in the bill, a necessity, and we, therefore, report the same with 

 a recommendation that it do pass. 



We further recommend that the same be so amended as to have three mem- 

 bers of the army corps of engineers and two civihans compose said commission, 

 instead of two members of the army corps of engineers and one of the coast and 

 geodetic survey and two civilians, as provided by the bill. — Kansas City Times. 



PROPOSED NEW ROUTE TO EUROPE. 



King Leopold, of the Belgians, it is reported, is engaged in an enterprise 

 having for its object the founding of a new route for ocean travel between 

 America and the old world. The route selected will, it is said, be direct from 

 New York to about the 40th parallel, and along that to the Portugese coast, with 

 the European entry at Lisbon or Cadiz. The Portugese and Spanish Govern- 

 ments have both been sounded upon the subject, and will, it is understood, do 

 all in their power to improve direct railway communication from the selected 

 port to Paris, and to improve the harbor facilities at the designated port of entry. 

 The navigators and engineers who have given the subject special consideration 

 approve the project thoroughly and pronounce the new route the best possible 

 between America and Europe. The 40th parallel is comparatively free from the 

 long storms besetting the present ocean courses, and icebergs rarely get so far 

 south. From New York to Liverpool steamers must average a change of nearly 

 14° latitude from south to north, and, with the exception of about five months 

 out of the twelve, have to contend against weather and seas practically Arctic in 

 fitfulness and dangers. This confines first-class travel to the summer months 

 and adds enormously to the cost of shipping and insurance in the winter months. 

 The Belgian engineers pronounce the port of Liverpool the most unnatural and 

 difficult of approach of all the great ports of the world, and declare it to be their 

 belief that because of this, and of the long journey from Queenstown to the Mer- 

 sey, Liverpool must soon cease to occupy its present importance as the principal 

 port of European entry. The solution of the ocean problem, these engineers 

 declare, will be only found in a route with an Atlantic port at the eastern terminus, 

 which must be as nearly as possible on a line straight east from New York, and 

 in Portugal or Spain. 



The principal advantages of the 40th parallel route are claimed to be the 

 following : First, a clear ocean passage below the line of icebergs and winter 

 storms, from port to port, enabling steamers to run with full power the whole 

 course : second, comparatively equable weather the whole year through, enabhng 



