of the San Francisco Valley level, and then the canal extends across this valley behind low hills lying nearer the San Juan, its level kept up by a low embankment about 15 feet high, supplementing the hills; towards the bend of the San Juan, where the San Francisco hills come to the river. From this point it extends in a straight line to the Serapiqui hills 64 miles lower down the river, being kept up through this section also by a low embankment on the river side. In these hills the second lock of 20 feet lift is located, thence the canal extends to the San Juanillo, still following the general course of the San Juan, and thence in a nearly direct line to Greytown, through the delta of the San Juan, the Silico Hills where the third and last lock of 30 ft. lift is located, and Silico lagoon. The additional length of this route over the upper is 6.6 miles and with the exception of the portion through Lake Silico (1.53 miles) it is all canal in excavation. Though based upon the location of 1872-73 it differs from that in the following particulars:

It is 3 miles shorter.

It has about one-half the number of curves.

It has no curve of less than 6,000 feet radius, and can be located with none less than 10,000 feet.

Its disadvantages, as compared with the upper route, are greater length and consequently greater cost of maintenance.

Thus we have at Nicaragua two perfectly practicable locations of about equal cost, either of which is far superior to any other route across the Isthmus: and when the day comes, as it surely will, when one canal cannot accommodate the traffic seeking it, then the other can be built and give one canal for eastward, and one for westward bound vessels.

I regret that the computations of the notes of the recent surveys have not as yet been completed, and I am consequently unable to give precise quantities and estimates. But the close correspondence between the measurements of former, and the last surveys, enables me to say in general terms, that quantities in sections where no modifications have been made will be changed little or none, while the total saving by modifications of plan will amount to $10,000,000 or $15,000,000.

The value of the 25% contingent estimate is also greatly enhanced by the closer determination in the recent surveys of all factors in the problem. Probably in no similar undertaking have the conditions for the rapid and economical execution of the work been more exceptionally favorable.

In the western division that portion of the canal from Brito to the first lock, and possibly from the first lock to the double locks, can be dredged. The Upper Rio Grande will furnish water for the removal of the surface earth by hydraulic mining, and later for running the rock drills in the divide cut. The deeper portions of the La Flor basin offer convenient and ample room for depositing all the material from the divide cut not used in the La Flor dam, and it will not be difficult to devise a method by which the water of the Lake can be made to give powerful assistance in the work of excavating and removing the material in the cut between the La Flor basin and the Lake.

In the eastern divide on the upper route exist similar conditions of water power available for removing surface earth hydraulically, and later for running air compressors for the drills. The deeper portions of the Chanchos and San Francisco valleys contain ample dumping ground for the spoils from the divide: and in removing these the engineer will have gravity with, instead of against him.

From Greytown to the first lock in the eastern section the excavation will be entirely dredging.

Probably not less than seventy-five per cent of the excavation between lock No. 1 and lock No. 2 also in the Deseado and San Francisco basins, and in the section from the latter basin to the dam, can by a proper sequence of work be excavated by dredges. On the lower route at least eighty-five per cent in length can be dredged, and the maximum haul of the earth and rock spoils on any portion of the remaining fifteen per cent will be about one-half mile.

The item of earth excavation, with all its varied plant of excavators, cars, locomotives, etc., its attendant expense of moving tracks and keeping tracks in order, and the difficulty of handling the material in rainy weather, is thus reduced to a minimum, and the excavation of the canal accomplished practically under the three great heads of Hydraulic Mining, Rock Excavation, Dredging, all three independent of drainage and rains, the great drawbacks to work on the Isthmus, and the work on the canal can be pushed forward without interruption night and day, year in and year out, until it is completed.

The numerous borings made have banished the bottomless swamps, the semi-liquid quicksands, and the numerous other subterranean bugbears which have been conjured up against the Nicaragua route, and have shown that in no portion of either location is there any trouble in regard to foundations.

In the worst swamps encountered, the boring tools after sinking by their own weight for a distance of ten, or at a maximum fifteen feet, reached a stratum of firm red clay extending to bed rock. The sequence of strata everywhere except in the San Juanillo region, is almost without exception as follows: in the low bottoms, black mud or loam; then varying strata of blue or red or yellow clay or sand, or both, or all; then firm red clay; then, if the borings were carried deep enough, rock; on the hills, red clay and earth to bed rock. The borings show the even and unbroken character of the rock in the divide, and have also developed the fact that the earth covering of the bed rock averages deeper than was supposed in 1885. In the valley of the San Juanillo, sand is found mixed with soft blue and yellow clays, and nearer the harbor sand alone. Borings at Greytown bar and in the harbor to the depth of forty feet below sea level, discovered no rock, only compact homogeneous sand, and on the upper route no rock was discovered within ten and a half miles of Greytown nor on the lower route between Greytown and the Silico Hills. The borings also show rock foundations for all the locks and the Ochoa dam.

LOCKS.

The locks in general dimensions and methods of construction remain the same as proposed in '85, viz.: 650 feet long and 80 feet wide.

The number, however, will be reduced from seven to six, and possibly five: the total lift will be somewhat differently distributed: a new feature is introduced in the shape of the double lock at the La Flor dam, and it is more than probable that improvements will be made by which the time of lockage will be reduced from forty-five minutes, as previously estimated, to thirty minutes. The gates proposed for the locks are sliding caissons for head gates and two tail gates, and rolling caissons for the other tail gates.

WATER SUPPLY.

The amount of water necessary for working the canal to its full capacity, viz. forty-eight double lockages per twenty-four hours is 210,161,280 cu. ft. or less than one-fourth the minimum supply of the Lake alone (984,096,000 cu. ft.) without taking into consideration the flow of the several tributaries of the San Juan between the Lake and the Ochoa dam, and the San Francisco and its tributaries, which will more than compensate for all losses by evaporation in the flooded portion of the river, and the basins.

DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITY OF THE CANAL.

Some modifications of the cross-sections proposed in 1885 may be made, but for the present they may be assumed to be the same.

They will be ample to accommodate all the traffic that the locks can handle, and the capacity of the locks will be the measure of the capacity of the canal.

The maximum capacity of the canal was estimated in 1885 at 20,440,000 tons, based upon a time allowance of forty-five minutes for passing a lock, and the average net tonnage of the vessels using the Suez canal in 1883, viz. : 1747.

In 1886 the average tonnage at Suez was 1863 tons, and the constant tendency has been towards an increased average tonnage, which increase would have been much greater had it not been for the limitations imposed by the depth of only 26 feet at Suez and the insufficient facilities for vessels to pass each other.

With a depth of 30 feet at Nicaragua and considering the heavier class of traffic which would seek that canal, a conservative estimate would be that the average net tonnage of vessels using Nicaragua would almost immediately reach 2,000 tons or more.

With the probable improvements in the locks already noted, by which the time of lockage may be reduced to thirty minutes, the ultimate capacity of the canal will be forty-eight vessels per day of 2,000 tons each, or 35,040,000 tons annually.

CLIMATE.

Much has been said both for and against the climate of Nicaragua, but the experience of the recent expedition is worth volumes. Over forty engineers and assistants, not half a dozen of whom had ever been in tropical countries before, and some of whom were college graduates, who had never seen a day of really hard work or exposure, went to what is by common consent, the most unhealthy portion of Nicaragua, viz. : the region extending thirty miles back of Greytown, started at once into the woods, before the rainy season had closed, worked in the rain and swamps all day, and repeatedly slept on the ground at night, and yet in all the seven months that the expedition remained in the field not a man was lost, nor was there a single case of serious illness. More than that, every member of the party that has thus far returned, has come back in better condition than when he went away. I myself have repeatedly spent several successive days and nights, the former in traversing the lines of the various parties, the latter in sleeping as best I could uncovered and in wet clothes in my boat, while my crew who had slept during the day, paddled along the San Juan or up the San Francisco or Deseado, and at the end of the trip felt as well as when I started.

This was due, partly to the fact that no pains were spared to supply the expedition with the best of everything in the way of provisions, and partly to certain regulations which were rigidly insisted upon, but more to the climate and equable temperature, in which a sound man, with the simplest precautions, cannot be other than well.

In conclusion, I am happy to say that it is not now a question as it was a year ago, shall we build the Nicaragua Canal? but we will build it. The last year has seen a great verdict in its favor. In 1876, the great International Canal Congress at Paris, resolved that if a canal with locks were to be built, then the Nicaragua route was the best, but as a sea level canal was a sine qua non, and as such a canal was feasible at Panama, Panama was the only place for a canal. To-day, preparations are being made to put in locks on the Panama route, and not five or six as at Nicaragua, but ten, and the summit level of a canal which is said to be intended to accommodate the traffic of the world, is to be supplied with water by pumping. This is the age of ship canals. Whatever sophisms may be put forth against them, ocean commerce recognizes their economy and utility, and in response to its demand they are being built and will continue to be built until every path of ocean commerce is reduced to its minimum length. European nations are building them for purely local traffic or from political considerations. Within the year, England has commenced upon the Manchester Ship Canal, and is to-day removing earth at the rate of 1,000,000 cubic yards per month. Russia has completed the Petersburgh and Cronstadt Canal, and is projecting another (Sea of Azof). Germany has commenced upon the North Baltic Canal. France is at work upon the Corinth. Suez and Amsterdam are doing an annually increasing business. But greatest project of them all, pledge of incalculable benefits to ocean traffic and

of commercial prestige to this country, is the Nicaragua Canal. It is the one grand link yet wanting to enable commerce to circle the globe without going beyond the limits of the tropical zone.

The gentleman who preceded me has covered the general bearings of the theme most eloquently, yet I cannot help trenching a bit upon his domain. The Nicaragua canal will bring every Atlantic port nearer every Pacific port; it will move the mouth of the Mississippi to the centre of the Pacific; it will give our western coast an impetus which will in a few years place it as far beyond what it is to-day as it is to-day beyond what it was when our statesmen were discussing the advisability of its purchase.

It will be a national stimulus to invention and with its great demand during construction, for men, machinery, materials and supplies, will offer a field for engineers, architects, machinists, contractors, business men, skilled labor of every kind, and a great market for supplies, which of itself alone will be of the greatest value to this country.

ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF E. B. ELLiott. By Mrs. L. O. TALBOTT, Washington, D. C.

THE TRUE BASES FOR DEALINGS IN MILLS. By HENRY E. ALVORD, Agricultural College, Maryland.

THE MONEY HOARD IN THE UNITED STATES TREASURY. By EDWARD DANIELS, Washington, D. C.

OUR MONETARY SYSTEM. BY EDWARD DANIELS, Washington, D. C.

THE HISTORY OF STATISTICS AND THEIR VALUE. BY WILLIAM F. SWITZLER, Bureau of Statistics, Washington, D. C.

CREMATION: PAST AND PRESENT; WITH DESCRIPTION AND DIAGRAM OF THE BUFFALO CREMATION COMPANY'S FURNACE. BY CYRUS K. REMINGTON, Buffalo, N. Y.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FOR VAGRANT CHILDREN AND IMMIGRANTS.

Mrs. LAURA O. TALBOTT, Washington, D. C.

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