A.—B

7

were subterranean, the Commission observed that this feature of the scheme would not only be inconvenient to vessels, but would involve great cost, since the tunnel must be high enough to allow of vessels passing through with their lower masts standing. It was further objected by the Commission that M. Garella had not made sufficient provision for feeding the proposed canal; while exception was likewise taken to the harbours which he suggested—Navy Bay on the Atlantic side, and Vaca del Monte Bay on the Pacific side—as being ill-adapted for the purposes in view without a serious outlay in improvements. M. Garella's scheme, for these and other reasons, came to nothing; but at this time of day it is highly interesting, not only as being the first well-considered scheme for a ship-canal across the isthmus, but as a plan suggested by a countryman of the intrepid engineer who has now fairly undertaken the work of connecting the two oceans by a kindred enterprise. Between the Panama line and the Province of Choco three other routes for a ship-canal have been at different times suggested—the first, from the Chepo or Bayanos River to San Bias or Mandinga (sometimes called Manzanilla) Bay; the second, from the Gulf of San Miguel to Caledonia Bay; and the third, from the same gulf to the southern part of the Gulf of Urabia or Darien. The narrowest part of the isthmus has generally been believed to be that between Chepo and San Bias. It is stated that the Indians were formerly in the habit of hauling their canoes on wooden slides across the Cordilleras from the Mandinga River, and launching them in the waters of the Bayanos. Numerous attempts were made by Englishmen half a century ago to cross the isthmus at this point, but they were generally driven back by the aborigines. One of the first, if not the first, really comprehensive surveys made of the Chepo and San Bias route was carried out in 1864 by Mr. F. M. Kelley, of New York, who reported that the whole length of the route from ocean to ocean was only thirty miles; that on the north, San Bias furnished a safe, deep, and spacious harbour; and that on the south, the channel leading into the Bay of Panama had not less than 18ft. of water at mean low tide, while the ordinary rise of the tide was 16ft. Nothing further came of Kelley's survey, which was not a Governmental, but a private enterprise—probably, for one reason, because he, like Garella, suggested a considerable amount of tunnelling, the limits of which were not then so well understood as they now are. The San Miguel and Caledonia Bay route has been explored at different times by the Governments of the United States, France, and Great Britain; but without leading to any more definite results than an inconsiderable accession to our geographical knowledge of the country. The social and commercial advantages of the Panama Canal have been clearly understood and expressed by the various writers on the subject from Paterson's time to our own. That remarkable man, in one of his letters to the Darien Company, written close on two centuries ago, remarked that " the time and expense of navigation to China, Japan, and the Spice Islands, and the greater part of the Bast Indies, will be lessened more than one-half, and the consumption of European commodities and manufactures will be more than doubled;" and again, "Thus, this door of the seas and key of the universe, with anything of a reasonable management, will of course enable its proprietors to give laws to both oceans, and become arbitrators of the commercial world." A report made some years ago to the Secretary of the United States Navy stated that the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama would lead to the following savings of distance over the Cape Horn route between New York and the places specified:—

The Government of the United States has frequently shown its high appreciation of the advantages that were to be anticipated from piercing the isthmus. A resolution of the American Senate, dated the 19th March, 1866, instructed the Secretary of the Navy to "furnish the summit levels and distances by survey of the various proposed lines for interoceanic canals and railroads between the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans; as also their relative merits as practicable lines for the construction of a ship-canal, and especially as relates to Honduras, Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Panama, and Atrato lines." A very elaborate report was presented to the Senate in consequence of this resolution, accompanied by charts, plans, lines of levels, &c.; but no further action of a practical character was taken upon such report, although it was set forth that the country that embraced the American isthmus had good ports on both oceans, great agricultural resources, embraced valleys traversed by noble rivers, table-lands at different elevations that afforded a variety of climate and productions, with "mountains in which still lies buried an incalculable amount of mineral wealth, and at the* foot of which the native Indian, with the rudest means and appliances, collects in a few hours gold enough to enable him to pass weeks or months in indolence and diversion."

Prom New York to Distance vid Cape Horn. Distance via Isthmus of Panama. Saving in Distance over Cape Horn Route. Shanghai Valparaiso Jallao ruayaquil 'anama ... ian Francisco Janton ... )alcutta... Milos. 22,000 12,900 13,500 14,300 16,000 19,000 21,500 23,000 Miles. 10,400 4,800 3,500 2,800 2,000 5,000 10,600 13,400 Miles. 11,600 8,100 10,000 11,500 14,000 14,000 10,900 9,600