THE TEHUANTEPEC SHIP PAIL Till I' 
69 
American istlimus will amount to more than the cost of operat- 
ing the ship railway. The time in transit through the restricted 
channels and locks at Nicaragua will be twice as great as the 
time I’equired on the ship railway, and will eyen exceed the time 
required on the railroad to load on the ears, haul across the isth- 
mus, and reload into yessels. The Suez canal, immeasurably 
easier to maintain than any canal would he at either Panama or 
Nicaragua, cost for maintenance and working in 1883 $2,784,869. 
A careful study of the cost of operating the ship railway gives a 
safe estimate of 30 cents per ton. I haye no dou1)t that with a 
traffic of 7,000,000 tons this is ample, but I haye decided to use 
50 cents per ton in the present estimate. As to the cost of pre- 
paring the three routes under comparison for a large traffic, the 
ship railway, fully equipped for canning yessels weighing 10,000 
tons and 7,000,000 tons of freight, will cost on a cash basis about 
$60,000,000. I shall not estimate the cost of building a ship canal 
at Panama or Nicaragua. The former, parti}" comjffeted — cer- 
tainly not over one-half — has already cost probably $250,000,000 
in cash and the plan changed from a sea-level canal to a lock 
canal, the practicability of wliich is extremely doubtful, due to 
inadequate water supply in the dry season ; and as to Nicaragua, 
we mu.st rely u))on the report, soon to be made public, of the able 
board of engineers appointed by the Presidcmt. 
4'he presentation of the subject will not be coni})lete without 
a re.sume of the jjroposed method of carrying shij)S overland by 
railway, for avc are aecustomed to regard any method that has 
not the sanction of use as visionary. 
Many ])r()jects for commercial sliii) railways have been made 
during the last thirty years. In 1872 Brunlees and ^Vebb, of 
Great Britain, made plans for a sliii) railway across the American 
isthmus at Honduras, which would haye l)een built but for the 
financial depression that. soon followed. It was intended to trans- 
])ort vessels of 1,200 tons register. The United States (‘ngineers 
have designed a steamboat railway to avoid tlie dangerous navi- 
gation of The Dalles of the Columbia river. The project and 
]»lans have receivcsl the ai)])roval of Congr((Ss and an api)ro])ria- 
tion of $100,000 lias been made to begin work. The ship railway 
of Nova Seotiii, designed by Mr H. G. C. Ketchum, Sir .John 
Fowler, and Sir Benjamin baker, to connect the gulf of St. Ivaw- 
rence with the hay of Fundy, d(‘serv(!s special attention, as it is 
nearly eonipleh'd. ( )f the $5,500,000 required, all hut $1 ,500,000 
has been expended. The line is about 17 miles long, and by- 
