624 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



$41,193,839. In every construction of this kind what is known as a contingent 

 fund is requisite for machinery, superintendence, unforeseen difficulties, delays, 

 interest on money, etc. More recent examinations assure the fact that the canal 

 location can be very materially improved, but as this has not yet been effected 

 instrumentally, no reduced estimate for labor and material is admissible, and, 

 although considerable will result, it will not be taken now into account. Over 

 the present line of location the cubes are well ascertained, and the character of 

 the material to be excavated is approximately known. The estimate for dredg- 

 ing where the material can be flumed into its place of deposit is thirty-five cents 

 per cubic yard. Improved machines make this estimate excessive, and there 

 will be not less than fifteen miles of dredging of the fifty-three miles requiring 

 excavation, if further location does not reduce this ten miles or more, which is 

 highly probable. On the eastern section 24,064,053 cubic yards in earth is given 

 at thirty-five cents per yard. More than half of this can be dredged and flumed 

 to its dumping ground at a cost not exceeding one-third of the estimate. Rock 

 excavation in the San Juan River is given at $5.00 per cubic yard, when it can 

 be contracted for at a considerably less figure. The reader will bear in mind 

 that all of the engineer's estimates were doubled by the canal commissioners 

 appointed by the President, and will also be here in stating the maximum cost of 

 the canal at $82,387,678. 



The engineer's estimate for earth was thirty-five cents ; for stiff clay, forty 

 cents, and for rock " in the dry," $1.25 to $1.50 per cubic yard. The dumping 

 grounds throughout are very convenient, as they may well be on a lock canal, 

 and there are no cuts of more than forty-five feet in depth above the water level, 

 and they are quite short. The mean cut above the intended water level of the 

 canal is less than ten feet, and the deepest fills are three feet below it. As all of 

 the excavations can be made with sufficient natural drainage, except the parts 

 that can be dredged, the most economic conditions exist for the execution of 

 every part of the work, and this would not be the case were it a sea-level canal, 

 where blasting and removing rock must be a slow and expensive operation. 



The engineer's estimates were not made to favor the construction of the 

 work; they were made for the government. With a contingent of twenty-five 

 per cent, which perhaps would prove too small, it is not at all improbable 

 that the cost of the canal, when executed in the best manner, may not exceed 

 $65,000,000, interest included. Without sacrificing economy nearly every part 

 of the construction can be entered upon at the same time, and for this reason the 

 canal may be open for traffic within five years from this date. 



Admitting the maximum figure for construction instead of the- last named, 

 let us consider a minimum figure of tonnage and of transit dues. Of immense 

 importance to us prospectively is our coasting trade which would pass through 

 it. One million tons for the present would be a low estimate, and in less than 

 half a century it would be five times that amount. The grain product for export 

 to Europe of the north Pacific Coast now exceeds 2,000,000 tons, and the vessels 

 partly laden with iron and coal and partly in ballast, going through the canal for ■ 



