238 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



business awaiting the Canal, so that it is not to be 

 wondered at that there should be some conflict of 

 opinion in shipping circles on the position it is likely 

 to hold among the highways of the world's trade. 

 Nor, in these circumstances, is it remarkable that 

 American economists of a certain school should 

 question the wisdom of such an undertaking, in- 

 volving a known expenditure, but wholly unknown 

 returns, by Government instead of by private 

 enterprise. 



In England, the Panama Canal has, apart from 

 its political aspect and the technical interest that it 

 has for engineers, excited little attention. Here 

 and there a few writers in the press have speculated 

 on its possible effects on the trade of Britain, and 

 some of the hypotheses even include the tragical 

 deflection of the Gulf Stream into the Pacific in the 

 event of the dams bursting, as well as the convey- 

 ance of the yellow-fever microbe into our Indian 

 Empire, which has so far been practically immune 

 from the ravages of that terrible epidemic. With 

 the alleged climatic cataclysm claimed by physio- 

 graphers as the direct result of the divergence of 

 the Gulf Stream I have not sufficient knowledge to 

 concern myself. The other apprehension, which I 

 believe originated with that eminent worker in 

 tropical diseases. Sir Patrick Manson, rests on the 

 hypothesis that the carriage of Steg07nyia from the 

 Caribbean into Asia has hitherto been precluded by 

 the long and cold voyage ^'i^the Horn, in the course 

 of which the mosquito would be either blown away 

 or frozen to death. The opening of the Panama 

 Canal, on the other hand, would, it is argued, afford 

 that scourge a short, tropical route from the West 



