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that go to India round the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and to Peru round Cape Horn, is 400 tons; 

 the whale-boats of the South Sea are only 200 

 or 300 tons. In Spanish America, from ancient 

 custom, ships of much greater tonnage are em- 

 ployed in time of peace. At Vera Cruz for ex- 

 ample, where there entered, during my stay in 

 Mexico, from 100 to 130 vessels coming from 

 Spain, their size was generally 500 tons. It is 

 only in time of war that shipments of 300 tons 

 are made for Cadiz. 



These statements sufficiently prove, that in 

 the present commercial state of the world, such 

 a canal of junction as is projected between the 

 Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea, would be 

 sufficiently large, if by its section and the capa- 

 city of its locks, it could admit the passage of 

 vessels of from 300 to 400 tons burden. This 

 ought to be the minimum of its dimensions, and 

 it supposes, after what we have indicated above, 

 a capacity nearly double that of the canal of 

 Holstein, but much less than that of the Cale- 

 donian canal ; the former receiving vessels of 

 from 150 to 180 tons, and the latter, frigates of 

 32 guns, and merchant ships of more than 500 

 tons. It is true that the tonnage determines 

 only by approximation the quantity of water a 

 ship draws, since the excellence or defects of 

 its construction alters at the same time its 



