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the Caledonian canal, admit merchant vessels 

 of heavy tonnage, and thirty-two gun frigates. 

 It is, however, the practicability of this pas- 

 sage which is discussed in the project of cutting 

 an isthmus in America. The pretended func- 

 tion of the two seas, by the canal of Languedoc, 

 has not spared the navigation a circuit of more 

 than 600 leagues round the Spanish Peninsula; 

 and, however admirable this hydraulic work 

 may be which receives annually 1900 flat-boats, 

 carrying from 100 to 120 tons each, it can 

 only be considered as a means of inland car- 

 riage : since it very little diminishes the num- 

 ber of vessels that pass through the straits of 

 Gibraltar. It cannot be doubted, that if at any 

 given point of equinoctial America, either in 

 the isthmus of Cupica, or in those of Panama, 

 Nicaragua, or even Huasacualco, two neigh- 

 bouring ports were joined by a canal of small 

 dimensions t (of from 4 to 7 feet deep), it would 

 produce great commercial activity. This canal 

 would act like a rail- way, and small as it might 

 be, would enliven and abridge the communica- 

 tions between the western coasts of America 

 and those of the United States and of Europe. 

 If even in time of war, the long and dangerous 

 passage round Cape Horn has been generally 

 preferred for the exportation of the copper of 

 Chili, bark, the wool of the vigogne of Peru, 

 and the cacao of Guayaquil, to the commercial 



