98 
than £20,000 ; and salt if managed by the proprietors, a sum 
equal to the latter. The immense quantity of vanilla which 
might be collected is of great value; and a considerable fishery, 
including that of tortoise-shell and pearls, would give results 
no less surprising. Lastly, we count for nothing what might be 
derived from the mines which must exist in the mountains of 
the Isthmus, since they are only a continuation of the rich chain 
of Oajaca. 
Adding together these sums, we have, 
For transit duties.£600,000 
Sale of lands, and Steam Navigation .... 50,000 
Timber, Mahogany dyewoods, &c. 500,000 
Other produce. 50,000 
Total : . £1,200,000 
Calculated receipt when the canal shall have been completed, 
subject only to the annual expenses of management and repairs 
of the canal, and the nett one-fourth of the transit dues 
payable to the Mexican government. 
We cannot now better conclude this subject than by giving 
the following extract from a Report made in the year 1839 
to the congress of the United States, shewing of what im¬ 
mense importance the opening of any ship Canal across the 
American Isthmus would be considered in that country ; and 
we give this verbatim as Sr. Moro has inserted it in his work. 
In the United States, where the advantages offered by such 
a project are generally better understood than anywhere else, 
its probably results have been very carefully investigated and 
studied; and in the Report, No. 332, presented in 1839, dur¬ 
ing the third sessions of the twenty-fifth Congress, we find, 
at pages 111 and 112, some very remarkable observations. 
The author, formerly consul of the republic at Lima, supposes 
the opening of the Isthmus (without fixing upon any particular 
locality) to cost twenty millions of dollars, or £4,000,000 
sterling; and upon this basis he reasons in the following 
manner :— 
“ Suppose the work to cost twenty millions of dollars, the 
“ interest thereon, at four per cent, per annum, would be 
