﻿ElGENMANN I FlSHES OF WESTERN COLOMBIA 3 



fishes of South America 1 : I pointed out the importance of western 

 Colombia to the distribution of the fresh-water fishes. Concern- 

 ing the Atrato-San Juan valleys I had previously said: 2 "This 

 waterway is one of the strategic points in the geographical dis- 

 tribution of South American fishes and it is more than to be re- 

 gretted that there is not a single record of a fresh-water fish from 

 either of these rivers!" 3 



The Atrato river is better known than most of the rivers of 

 South America. This is due to the fact that it was surveyed with 

 the view of using it in part for an Atlantic and Pacific canal. Two 

 elaborate accounts were published by the American government. 

 The first is (Senate Ex. Doc. No. 9. Vol. 7, 2d session, 36th Congr., 

 Reports of the Secretary of War, pp. 1-457, plates. Washington 

 1861), Lieutenant Michler's report of his survey for an inter- 

 oceanic ship canal near the Isthmus of Darien. In 1874 appeared 

 "Reports of Explorations and Surveys to ascertain the Practica- 

 bility of a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 

 by the way of the Isthmus of Darien" by Thos. Oliver Selfridge 

 (House Misc. 113, Washington, 1874). 



Walter McFarland (Senate Ex. Doc. No. 46, Vol. 2, 2d session, 

 52 Congr., pp. 1-21, Washington, 1893), gives a short "Report 

 upon an examination of the proposed routes for an interoceanic 

 Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, known as the Nica- 

 ragua Route and the Darien or Atrato Route, made in March and 

 April, 1874". 4 



Detailed maps were published in the first two of these volumes 

 not only of the Atrato itself, from Quibdo to its mouth, but also 

 of some of its western tributaries, the Truando and the Napipi. 



The Atrato flows in a wide valley. It is navigable to good-sized 

 steamers to Quibdo, which has an elevation of but 138 feet, and to 

 good-sized canoes to Manigru. Between Manigru and Boca de 

 Raspadura, the navigation even by canoes is more difficult and 



x The Fresh-Water Fishes of Patagonia and an Examination of the Archiplata- 

 Archhelenis Theory- Reports of Princeton University Expedition to Patagonia, III, 

 1909, particularly pages 352-363 and 370-372. 



Science, N. S. XXII, pp. 18-20, July 1, 1905. 



3 Exclusive of the letter of Gill, quoted below. 



4 The daily press, during the controversy between England and the United States 

 oveY Panama Canal tolls, raised the bugaboo that England would dig a canal of her 

 own by way of the Atrato. But all talk of a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific via 

 the Atrato is buncombe. It would either be too long or require a tunnel. In either 

 case there would not be enough water for the necessary locks. There is not the 

 faintest danger that anyone will ever compete with the present Panama Canal by 

 means of a canal via the Atrato. 



