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sure of height has been made since my return to 

 Europe. It is much to be regretted that, to- 

 wards the middle of the last century, the French 

 academicians crossed the isthmus of Panama 

 without thinking of opening their barometer at 

 the point of the partition of the waters. Some 

 observations which Ulloa has repeated, as by 

 chance, have led me to conclude that from the 

 mouth of the Rio Chagre to the embarcadere of 

 Cruces, there is a difference of level of 210, or 

 240 feet *. From the Venta de Cruces to Pa- 

 nama you ascend rapidly, and then descend 

 during several hours towards the South Sea. 

 It is, therefore, between this port and Cruces 

 that the threshold, or point of partition, is 

 placed, which the canal must pass over, if the 

 idea be persisted in of giving it that direction, 

 I shall here mention that it would suffice, in 

 order to enjoy the view of the two oceans at 

 once, that the mountains of the line of elevation 

 in the isthmus were 580 feet high, that is, only 

 a third higher than the Naurouse, in the chain 

 of the Corbieres, which is the point of partition 

 of the canal of Languedoc. Now this simulta- 



* Near Chepo and the village of Penomene for instance 

 (MSS. of the Curate Don Juan Pablo Robles). The moun- 

 tains seem to rise towards the province of Veragua, where 

 even wheat is cultivated in, the district of Chiriqui del Guami, 

 near the village of la Palma, Franciscan mission^ dependent 

 on the college of the Propaganda de Panama. 



