DAEIEN HAEBOTJE. 



335 



and communicates witii the ocean by the Darirn TTarhour, one of the largest and 

 safest in the world. This commodious inlet is continued seawards by the spacious 

 Gulf of San Miguel. Along the banks of the streams and estuary are a number of 

 villages — Yavisa, Phwcjaim, Chepigana — with an aggregate population of about 

 2,000. In the neighbouring forests grows Ûio, phytelaphm palm, which yields the 

 vegetable ivory of commerce. 



Another interoceanic cutting, proposed by MM. de Gogorza and Lacharme, 

 who fancied they had here found a pass not more than 180 feet high, would also 

 have utilised Darien Harbour; but it took a much more southerly course along the 



Fis 



155. — Ctjpica Bay. 

 Scale 1 : 180,000. 



Sands exposea at 

 low water. 



Depths. 



5 to 25 

 Fathoms. 



25 to 50 

 Fathoms. 



3 Miles. 



upper Tuyra and lower Atrato valleys, Wyse, however, has shown that this 

 depression has no existence, and that the Tihule Pass, lowest of the range, is 

 nearly 540 feet high. The canal, 140 miles long, would have required 22 locks, 

 a tunnel 2,200 yards in length and much dredging about the Atrato estuary. 



All the other schemes of canalisation in this region suffer from the same 

 inconvenience of having to enter the Atlantic by the Atrato, which is certainly 

 deep enough for the largest vessels, but which is separated from the sea by muddy 

 bars. One of the plans, studied by Trautwine in 1852, and again by Porter, 

 Kennish, Michler, Craven, and other engineers, follows the course of the Truando, 



