336 



MEXICO, CEÎsTEAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



a western affluent of tlie Atrato, crossing the cordillera by two tunnels and 

 terminating at the little inlet of Paracuchichi. 



According to an analogous project suggested by Selfridge, IjuII, and Collins, 

 the canal would ascend the Atrato, the Napipi, and its Doguado affluent, also 

 crossing the cordillera by locks and a tunnel at an elevation of 650 feet ; thence 



Fig. 156.— The Easpaduea Ditide. 

 Scale 1 : 750,000. 



i ...... ;.fefe^;C^.,^Avfe:r à.J^.rn^ri'ky^^l] 



st oF Green w ch 77° 



12 Miles. 



it would reach the Pacific at Chiri-chiri Bay, an inlet of Cupica Bay, where 

 extensive silting has already taken place. Another line studied by the same 

 American engineers reduces the number of locks. Lastly, the so-called Raspadura 

 Canal, lying farther south, and called also the " Priest's Canal," first mentioned by 

 Humboldt as an interoceanic highway opened in 1788, is not a canal at all. 

 A. Reclus even asserts that it has no existence. Anyhow, it is nothing more than 

 a simple depression about three miles long, standing on the parting line between 



