ENGINEERING EEPOKTS. 
75 
This gives an average per day for the whole year of 140 pas-» 
sengers and 27 tons of freight, or 400 lbs. per passenger f but 
as steamers carry from three to six hundred passengers, and 
from fifty to one hundred tons of freight, it would be necessary 
to provide mules for the transportation of the whole with the 
least possible delay. Consequently it has been thought proper 
to calculate for 2500 mules, including those for relays, to put on 
the route at the commencement. 
With these elements, the extreme cost of opening the commu- 
nication, and the approximate income therefrom, would stand as 
follows : 
Repair of road from Suchil to Ventosa $65,000 
Buildings for accommodation of passengers at the termini, and 
at regular stopping-places along the route 40,000 
Station-houses and boats at Ventosa 10,000 
2500 mules with saddles and aparejo, complete, at $50 125,000 
150 carriages and wagons, harness complete, for Pacific Plains, 
at $200 (delivered) 30,000 
2 light-draught steamers for the Coatzacoalcos River 50,000 
4 barges " " " 12,000 
Contingencies, 10 per cent 35,000 
Total cost of opening road $367,000 
Yearly receipts on 50,000 passengers, assuming the price at 
$25 each $1,250,000 
10,000 tons of freight at $100,f or $5 per 100 lbs 1,000,000 
Total receipts $2,250,000 
Keeping up stock, care of mules, feed, and all other expenses, 
40 per cent. 900,000 
Total yearly net income $1,350,000 
This supposes the company to undertake the whole matter of 
transportation, as seems proper they should do, in order to secure 
the comfort and speedy transit of passengers. If it be allowed 
that one-half of the transportation is effected by the inhabitants 
of the Isthmus, even then the estimated proceeds of the mule- 
- - j 
* This result is obtained by averaging all the freight amongst all the passen- 
gers ; but it must be recollected that there are sometimes whole mule trains of 
freight with but few passengers, and at other times a great many passengers with 
scarcely any freight. 
f $300 to $400 per ton has been charged on the Panama route. 
