The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1850-01-15
IA Castilian ieet-3,a62 meters.
10 English do.=3.965 do.


This perfect coincidence gives ncalculable value
to the minute soundings OF Cramer, copy OF which
will send you if you think proper to publish them
Orbegozo likewike reckoned IA Castan feet
dupth OF water tho bar OF Coatzacoalcos, but he
NEST likely copied from Cramer. -Dampler esti-
mated it at IA English feet he also near the
truth.
Don Tadeo de Ortiz stated it at % Mexican feet;
Robinson at % feet, English; and the members OF
our commission, under favorable circumstances,
thought that they had found 20 feet English mea-
suTemeRt.
During my SUCCESSIVE journeys to the Isthmus,
had acquired the proof that the last soundings were
exaggerated, and had stated them in, a work in
tended for publication; but new circumstance
renders of less consequence the question OF depth
of water the bar, as | announced in note to the
pamphlet | published at Mexico, in 1913, on the
lsthmuses OF -Tehuantepec and Panama. Il has
been subject OF general remark, that for Centuries
the-bar Of the .Coatzacoaleos has remained in the
same state. formerly thought that this was ow-
ing to the small quantity of aLuvial soil carried
down by the river to the hardness of its bank etc.
But have more lately aseertaided that it must be
attributed solely to the circumstances that the bot
tom OF the bar consists of argilaceous rocka sub
stance which, though nearly as. easy to work as
mari, possesses, nevertheless, the property OF re-
sisting the shock OF the without any alteEa-
| ton When, l consider the limited extent Of the
bar the materials oil which il composed, the great
natural depth of the river both sides OF it and
/ our modern facilities for performing submarine ex-
cavations, am irresistbly led to conclude that tbs
bar of the Coatzacoaleos may at very inconslds-
| rable outlay be so deepened to allow ships Of
| any burden to clear il with ease. As the lower
part of the river runs in direction parallel to the
meridian, an excavation OF a few feet in the cham
mel of the bar would make the entrance Of the river
most accessible by the very wind which, at pre-
sent is the least favorable.
will now turn my attention to other points. Ii
is somewhat remarkable that the persons concern
| ed in the Panama enterprise have p2ariably ehO
sen to attack me on grounds on which il is not in
| my power to meet them. l am not So presumptuous
as 10 imagine that have not committed many
rors and, for the sake of the project ITSELF sin
cerely desire be corrected But il is entirely
| pugnant to my feelings, in question OF 50 much
Importance to the whole world, to be obliged 10
swer arguments which it is evident do not even con-
vince those who produce them.
Secondly. Before your departure from Mexico, 1
informed you that had discovered in old book,
| printed in this city nearly two centuries ago, and
now entirely forgotten, the important fact that Coz
rez launched the ships employed IN the discovery Of
the Calilornias in the port of Salinas is gen
orally believed, but these very lakes OF Iehuan-
tepec. The details given in that book as TO the
transportation OF the timber used in constructing
the ships, and the account Of the accident which
| happened to one OF them en- crossing the bocca
! Baua,n (entranee BARI would Of themselves safhce
10 establish the correctness Of the statement, pat