The Republic of Panama 



65 



Low Tide in the Harbor of Panama ; the range of tide at Panama is 20 feet, 



and at Colon only one foot 



cussed, although as a result of that early 

 survey the Spanish governor declared 

 " that such a work was impracticable, 

 and that no king, however powerful he 

 might be, was capable of forming a 

 junction of the two seas or of furnish- 

 ing the means of carrying out such an 

 undertaking." The followers of the 

 Spanish governor were less easily dis- 

 couraged than he. 



The ship-canal enterprise gathered 

 advocates from one century to another, 

 until, during the nineteenth century 

 and the first years of the twentieth, many 

 careful surveys of possible routes across 

 the Isthmus were made. The principal 

 of those lying in the Republic of Pan- 

 ama, beginning with the most easterly, 



are the Caledonia route, the San Bias 

 route, and the Panama route. The 

 Caledonia route has at times attracted 

 much attention on account of the highly 

 colored but absolutely false accounts 

 rendered of it by one or two early ex- 

 plorers. The northern extremity of this 

 route, at Caledonia Bay, is about one 

 hundred and sixty-five miles east of 

 Colon and crosses the Isthmus in the 

 main in a southwesterly direction. The 

 surveys of the Isthmian Canal Commis- 

 sion showed that the elevation of the 

 divide at this point and the heavy work 

 to be done along its line were far too 

 great to permit its feasibility being con- 

 sidered in comparison with that of the 

 Panama route. The San Bias route, 



