89 
grant made to him by Government, and which lies profusely 
in every part through which the canal would pass; the ex¬ 
cellent kinds of building stone, the lime, bitumen, clay and all 
other necessary materials which nature seem to have taken 
pleasure in scattering in the most convenient spots; and, lastly, 
the ground and the waters, the acquisition of which occasions 
often considerable expenditure, and which, in our case, if it 
did occasion any at all, would be so trifling as not even to be 
worth mentioning, are all advantages in favour of the under¬ 
taking, and which very few of the same kind in Europe could 
easily command. 
Sr. Moro does not take into consideration these advantages, 
supposing them to be counterbalanced by other circumstances, 
and he therefore takes as a guide in his calculations the cost 
of an analogous undertaking, generally admitted to have been 
exceedingly expensive by a combination of adverse circum¬ 
stances. He does still more: he applies these calculations 
to his first project, which as has been mentioned may be con¬ 
sidered as the most costly, and he supposes the necessity of 
excavating the whole of the canal from the confluence of the 
Malatengo to the lagoons, without taking advantage of any of 
the favourable accidents of the ground. 
Sr. Moro says, “ the canal which I have taken as a model, is the 
Caledonian, the dimensions of which appear to me sufficient.*' 
To alter them much would occasion a considerable increase in 
the expenditure, perhaps without a suitable compensation, 
whilst the alteration required in the dimensions of some of its 
parts for the admission of steamers destined to a transatlantic 
navigation, would not make it much more expensive. 
“ Although the Caledonian canal measures less than 22 En¬ 
glish miles of proper channel, if we add to it the cost of cleans¬ 
ing and deepening the lakes, it may be considered as 25 miles 
long. The declivity from the top of the canal is of a medium 
height of 95 feet on each side, and it has in all 27 locks. 
“From the statement in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (7th 
edition, vol. 19, page 750) if would appear that the above- 
* Excepting the length of its locks which are too short for the vessels built 
at the present day. 
