THE ISTHMIAN SHIP-RAILWAY.

THE question of a transit for ocean vessels through the American Isthmus has occupied the attention of the civilized world for the last three hundred and fifty years. The great benefits which such a work would confer upon commerce were fully recognized even in the days of Cortez, and each year since has increased its necessity. The question naturally arises, Why has this great work been so long delayed? The answer lies in the fact that the majority of mankind cling to old methods rather than adopt new ones, even when the old ones are far more expensive and less efficient. It matters not that the untried ones rest upon the most evident deductions which can be drawn from scientific research or undisputed facts. Until they are demonstrated by actual test, those who propose them are looked upon as visionary enthusiasts. The opposition to the introduction of the steamengine, steam-loom, steam-boat, locomotive, and electric telegraph furnishes abundant evidence of the hesitancy and reluctance with which even the most intelligent communities adopt new methods.

For over forty years futile efforts were made to deepen the mouth of the Mississippi by the antiquated means of dredgeboats. When these were found inadequate, the only solution deemed possible was the still more ancient and expensive one of a canal, to be cut through the eastern bank of the river to the Gulf.

A proposition to deepen one of the mouths of the river, by concentrating the force of the stream itself upon the bar, was ridiculed and pronounced impracticable by professional gentlemen of the highest respectability, and nothing but the offer to guarantee the absolute success of the plan was sufficient to induce the government to abandon the idea of a canal. In fact, $8,000,000 with which to commence the canal was voted by one branch of Congress, after this offer was made. But it was not until

a second commission of engineers was authorized by the government to investigate the merits of the jetty system that the proposition to attempt the experiment, even at the sole cost and risk of a few private individuals, was sanctioned by the government.

At the congress of distinguished engineers from all parts of the world, assembled in Paris in 1878, at the instance of Count de Lesseps, to investigate the question of interoceanic transit across the American Isthmus, the only plan considered was that of a canal, and the decision was that the problem should be solved by a sea-level one at Panama. Its cost was estimated at twelve hundred million francs, or about two hundred and forty million dollars. Subsequently, more careful estimates reduced this amount to $168,000,000, without including interest during construction.

In a locality where, for six months in the year, the rain-fall is incessant and enormous, it is not probable that such a work can be completed in less than twenty years. But if we assume that it can be done in ten, the interest at five per centum during this time would add $84,000,000 to this estimate; making a grand total of $252,000,000.

In the last half-century, science has made such marvelous advances that, in the department of mechanics, it has placed resources within the reach of the engineer which were totally beyond his grasp before, and it is now an axiom of the profession that all things are possible, if the necessary money to execute them be provided. Therefore, a sea-level canal across the Isthmus of Panama is not an impossibility.

The immense rain-fall, and the unhealthfulness of the climate, will interpose the greatest obstacles to the work. So long as the bottom of the canal is kept above the ocean level, the engineer will require only such drainage works and pumping apparatus as are necessary to remove annually water sufficient to cover, to the depth of about thirteen feet, the entire area drained by the canal. But, knowing the average rain-fall, he will be able to provide means for its removal from his excavations. When, however, the ocean itself is tapped, as it must be in cutting the canal twentyeight feet below its surface, ordinary methods of drainage become impossible, and the quantity of water which will probably enter through veins and fissures below the ocean level is an unknown quantity, which engineering science cannot determine in advance. Yet even this formidable difficulty may be overcome, if the additional amount of money be provided. The success which has

attended the recent subscription to this enterprise seems to prove that there are many people ready to invest their money, on condition that they get five per cent. of it back every year during the time the canal is building, as is promised by the Universal Interoceanic Canal Company. As sixty million dollars are already subscribed to start the canal, on these terms, we may fairly conclude that subsequent subscriptions will be sufficient, if judiciously used, not only to pay back five per centum of it annually, and to manage the rain-fall, but also to pump out such part of the ocean as may intrude itself into the works during construction. Annoying delays to commerce may arise from these extraordinary difficulties, but the fact that the shareholders have a five-per-cent. dividend-paying stock, tolls or no tolls, will stimulate new subscriptions until the canal is completed, or until this novel method of raising money fails.

Of the commerce which will pay the tolls of any transit route for ships across the Isthmus, three-quarters will probably be American, and as the charges will doubtless be in proportion to the cost of the works, it is a matter of prime importance to the commercial interests of the United States to secure the construction of them for the least practicable sum.

The total amount of this traffic has been estimated by the chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Mr. Nimmo, to be at present only one million six hundred and twenty-five thousand tons annually. The Panama projectors estimate it at six million tons.

Although the estimate of Mr. Nimmo may be fairly criticised for the exclusion of a large amount of tonnage which he assumes will continue to go around the Horn to the eastward, it is probable that the real amount which the line will receive when opened will not exceed three million tons per annum. It is not likely, therefore, that the tonnage crossing the Isthmus within the next generation will support more than one line of ship-transit across it; and if we are to have moderate tolls, it is imperative that the transit be established upon that part of the Isthmus which will secure the shortest routes for our foreign and coast trade, because every additional mile which the vessel must travel will inevitably add to the cost of transporting the cargo it carries, no matter whether the increased cost results from higher tolls or a longer route.

Many persons will be surprised to learn that the isthmus which connects North and South America is as long as the dis

tance between New York City and the mouth of the Sabine River in Texas.

Attention is here called to the accompanying chart. Panama is located near South America, and its distance from Tehuantepec, in Mexico, is one thousand two hundred and fifty statute miles. Any vessel leaving New York for San Francisco, China, or Japan must have at least that much additional distance added to her passage in the Pacific, as well as an additional distance in the Caribbean Sea, if she crosses at Panama instead of Tehuantepec, as the Isthmus lies nearly parallel with the route she must traverse. A steam-ship from New York or Charleston must travel fifteen hundred miles further to reach her destination than she would if she could cross the Mexican Isthmus. The cargo which leaves San Francisco for Europe must run the length of the whole Isthmus, and thus be delayed six or seven days more, than it would be if it crossed at Tehuantepec. Nor can these great delays be saved by the proposed canal at Nicaragua. It will be about twice as long as the Suez Canal, and steam-ships require two days in passing through the latter, although it has no locks. It is fair, therefore, to infer that thrice as much time would be consumed at Nicaragua, inasmuch as a canal there must have numerous locks. Any attempt to pass these locks rapidly will involve great danger to the lock-gates, and an injury of that kind may require weeks of delay for repairs. No advantage can, therefore, be claimed for the Nicaragua route over that of Panama, for the canal proposed at the latter place is but forty-five miles long and without locks. A passage through it could be made in one day, while at Nicaragua the crossing would probably require five or six days.

The valley of the Mississippi, so wonderfully productive, with its marvelous net-work of rivers ramifying through every portion of a territory larger than the combined areas of Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, and capable of supporting, if peopled as densely as Holland, at least four hundred million souls, has but one natural outlet for its enormous productions-the mouth of its great river. The commerce of this immense region, if it seek a passage to the Orient or California by the Panama Canal, must be diverted out of its direct course a distance almost double the length of the Isthmus. It must travel two thousand two hundred miles further to reach those markets than by way of Tehuantepec. These distances are but faintly realized when thus stated, but when the map is meas