19 
francs (£560,000), he calculates the total expense of such a 
tunnel at about 50 millions of francs, or £2,000,000. 
The two trenches required as water conduits would be of 62 
and 37 Kilom. that is 38J and 23 miles long, and it is further 
thought that reservoirs might be formed in the gorges of the 
neighbouring hills at small expense. 
The cost of constructing harbours at Vaca de Monte, and 
the Bay of Limon enter into Mr. Garella’s calculations for the 
sum of 12 millions, or £480,000. 
Mr. Garella makes the grand total for the canal, tunnel, 
conduits, and ports, amount to the sum of 139 millions of 
francs, or £5,560,000. 
Upon this statement we have the following observations to 
make : 
First , Mr. Garella abandons at once the first project of an 
open cutting as an impossibility, from the vastness of the di¬ 
mensions to be excavated, which would be of three times the 
size of the tunnel, even supposing it to admit of being per¬ 
pendicularly wall-sided. 
Secondly , Supposing a tunnel could be cut as stated, all ves¬ 
sels would have to strip their masts and rigging at the port of 
arrival, and replace them at the port of departure, operations of 
great difficulty and delay in any place, and dreadful risk of the 
lives of the crews in such a pestiferous climate as Panama. 
Thirdly , The breadth of the proposed tunnel and lockage at¬ 
tached to it would only accommodate one vessel at a time, and 
sufficient breadth of towing-path is not allowed for; light and 
ventilation are not alluded to. 
Fourthlyy The dimensions given by Mr. Garella make 
the excavation about eight times that of the Box tunnel 
on the Great Western Railway; and the solid contents of 
4,156,950 Cubic Metres, is calculated to cost only 12 francs 
each Cubic metre. Now we happen to know by long expe¬ 
rience of mining operations within the tropics, that in cutting 
through such a porphyry rock as Mr. Garella describes, each 
Cubic metre would cost at the lowest estimate 60 francs, or 5 
times more than Mr. Garella’s estimate that is nearly 250 mil¬ 
lions of francs, or £10,000,000 for the tunnel alone. 
jb 2 
