March 26, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



281 



something over sixty million francs, and the re- 

 maining half of its capital, with which to pay for 

 the excavation of eighty -eight million cubic 

 metres. From eighteen months to two years have 

 been lost through lack of discipline and ill-directed 

 efforts. If we judged only from the earth already 

 moved, there would be required to complete the 

 work four thousand million francs and thirty-six 

 years. But the expense and time spent in getting 

 ready, the acquisition of property, and the col- 

 lection of materials, must be considered. There 

 have been wasted in useless works, too high 

 prices, and absurd contracts, a hundred and 

 fifty million francs. The errors committed by 

 the direction will amount, at the time of com- 

 pletion, to a loss of about three hundred and fifty 

 million francs, to which ought to be added a large 

 share of the ninety-four million francs paid for 

 the Panama railroad, since the better terms he 

 had negotiated with the railroad company were 

 set aside. 



He still adheres to and defends his original 

 estimate of a hundred and five million cubic 

 metres of earth as the quantity needful to be 

 moved, provided the useless plans for the devia- 

 tion of the Chagres, and the formation of a great 

 interior port near Corrozal, are given up. The 

 treatment he would apply to the river is that of 

 one large dam and a number of smaller ones 

 along its course. The earth has proved of good 

 quality for retaining a slope, is deeper, and there 

 is less rock and of a less hard nature than was 

 anticipated. By a reformation of methods of 

 administration and work, by the employment of 

 experienced contractors, by carrying out no un- 

 necessary projects, by push and energy, he esti- 

 mates that it is possible to finish the canal in six 

 years. The company must raise, for the eighty- 

 eight million cubic metres of excavation, at five 

 and a half francs per metre, four hundred and 

 eighty-four million francs, and seventy-five millions 

 for accessory works, and one hundred millions for 

 discount, interest, etc. , less certain savings which 

 can be made ; in all, about six hundred million 

 francs. By proper and rigorous economy he be- 

 lieves that the total cost can be brought to twelve 

 hundred million francs. 



We find, further, that he calls attention anew 

 to his alternative project at Panama, with ten or 

 eleven locks, the fifth in the preceding enumera- 

 tion, as offering a cheaper and a quicker solution 

 of the problem in which the company is now 

 engaged. Current rumor would seem to indicate 

 that the company was leaning towards such a 

 way of extricating itself from its present difficul- 

 ties, even with an abandonment of the chief 

 argument in favor of the Panama route, — that 



it would be a sea-level canal like the Suez canal, 

 without locks. 



He closes with a discussion of the mercantile 

 advantages to be derived from the canal, and the 

 revenue from which to repay the great outlay 

 cited above. 



LONDON LETTER. 



In the first of this series of letters, allusion was 

 made to the frightfully unsanitary condition of 

 the river Lea, in one of the London suburbs. 

 From' the upper part of this, water is still drawn 

 for the metropolitan supply, while enormous 

 quantities of sewage, etc., are allowed to drain 

 into it lower down in its course. A few days ago 

 a public meeting was held at the Mansion house, 

 London, under the presidency of the lord mayor, 

 in aid of the " National society to secure effective 

 legislation against river-pollution." The attorney- 

 general, SirC. Russell, M.P., moved the following 

 resolution : " That the speedy purification of our 

 rivers would, in the opinion of this meeting, 

 effect a great reform long urgently needed, and 

 of vital importance to the general health and wel- 

 fare of the community." There were two defects 

 in the existing law : first, it was only permissive 

 instead of compulsory ; second, its powers could 

 only be put in force by the sanitary authorities, 

 who in some instances had been the main offend- 

 ers. He would like to see the law so amended 

 that no sewage-pollution should be allowed, under 

 any circumstances, to enter any river, — at least, 

 up to the point of its reaching the sea or a great 

 estuary, — and he did not think the difficulty of 

 making the law effective to that extent would 

 prove very serious. Reform in the case of the 

 river Lea would be a pioneer of reform in the case 

 of other rivers ; and, if the responsibility of deal- 

 ing with sewage were placed on communities, the 

 question would very soon be settled. From what 

 came under the notice of the present writer dur- 

 ing his recent visits to America, he thinks these 

 weighty words should not be without due warn- 

 ing to various parts of the states and Canada. 



The exceptional length and severity of the pres- 

 ent winter are universal topics of conversation. 

 For some days there has been skating in the Lon- 

 don parks, — an event without precedent, for the 

 second week in March. On the nights of Satur- 

 day and Sunday, March 6 and 7, the minimum 

 temperature registered by screened thermometers 

 (verified at Kew) near Stoke-on-Trent, in the mid- 

 land districts of England, was 7° F. The next 

 lowest temperature recorded in March was 13°, 

 on March 13, 1845 ; and, according to Mr. 

 Glaisher's Greenwich tables, that was the coldest 



