SURVEY OF THE DARIEN.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 836, 19 March 1867, Page 4

SURVEY OF THE DARIEN.

[From the 'Panama Star and Herald.'] A tabiy of engineers under Mr. Davidson, aent out by the United States Government, are. now in this city making arrangements, preparatory to starting for the Darien,for a more complete survey of that portion of the Isthmus, with a view to the construction of & ship oanal, than has yet been made. Indeed, hitherto very little information of a satisfactory nature has been derived from surveying expeditions in that region, and it is desirable that speculation as to the practicability of so important a scheme, should be set at rest, and something direct, positive, and reliable in reference thereto given to the World. We have before us the report of Rear- Admiral Davis on the subject, but it is too lengthy for publication in our columns. The N. Y. Herald, in alluding to it, says : — -Rear-Admiral Davis presents a summary of all the surveys and regonnoissances which have been made of these routes, together with' a statement of the advantages and disadvantages of each. He gives decided preference to the route across the Isthmus of Darien, convinced aa he is by the results of even the imperfect explorations hitherto made, that this route is straight, short, and apparently practicable. At each end of this line, from the Gulf of San Miguel to Caledonia Bay, there are natural spacious, deep, and secure harbors — in short admirable in every respect. On the Pacific side there is a rise of tide suited to the construction of docks for building and repairs. The line cuts the Cordilleras at a depression at least thirty feet below, any that has ever been reported, and several hundred feet below any that has actually been surveyed. "Its course is direct, free from obstruction, and exceptionally healthy, while its outlets open upon coasts where violent storms are rarely known. The plains on each side of the dividing ridge are of easy slope, and readily penetrated. The Savanna river itself would form a part of the canal ; and, finally, accepting the particular statement of Dr. Cullen as fully reliable, a ship 'canal may be cut on this line without locks and even without tunnel, and yet not surpass in difficulty, in labor, or in the amount of time and money consumed in its construction* several other monuments of human genius and enterprise in past times and in our day. 1 Thus does Admiral Davis sum up the advantages of a ship canal twenty-six or twenty-seven miles in length on such a line as that described by Dr. Cullen, with a cut of two miles only through hard rock. The Admiral is confident that in respect to time, money, and difficulty, it would fall far short of that tunnel -which is now in progress under the Alps at Mont Cenis for the purpose of connecting Prance and Italy by a continuous railway. He presents, moreover, a number of tables which show the saving in distance from New York to Calcutta, Canton, Shanghae, Valparaiso, Callao, Guayaquil, Panama, San Bias, Mazatlan, San Diego, San Francisco, Wellington, in New Zealand, and Melbourne, in Australia, by the Isthmus of Panama, over the Cape routes, amounting in each case of five of these ports to fourteen thousand miles ; the total amount of tonnage and trade affected by the projected canal (467,831,130 dols.), and, finally, the yearly saving to the trade of the world that would result from the use of the canal (49,530,208 dols.) An isthmus canal, which will at once make a yearly saving of nearly fifty millions to the trade of the world, certainly commends itself to the attention of the commercial classes everywhere. Statesmen and philanthropists are already aware that its prospective advantages to mankind cannot be over-estimated.