The New York herald., 1870-08-09
American Is.hmus Canal Surveys.

The incalculable advantages Of ship canal
that shall connect the Atlantic and the Pacific,
conveying merchandise without breaking bulk,
saving the long, costly and pelilous voyage
around Cape Horn, rendering the cities of our
Pacific coast the great receivers and distri-
butors of European and Asiatic products, and
fulfilling Sir Walter Raleigh's prediction, that
the isthmus will become ''the key Of the uni
verse;" amply justify the appropriation by
Congress, at its late session, of thirty thousand
dollars for new survey Of the routes OF
Nicaragua and Tehuantepec 1t is understood
that Captain Shufeldt will command the expe-
dition to be fitted out in August and to leave
in September. 1t is also understood that about
the same time Commander Selfridge-who is
now preparing his final reports, and the maps
of whose recent survey have just been trans
ferred to the Coast Survey Office at
Washington to be worked up-will return
to the Isthmus of Darien and examine the
Tuyra and Atrato routes In order to ascertain
their practicability as routes for an inter
oceanic canal The more extensive and the
more thorough all these surveys shall be, the
more definite and conclusive the results will
prove. To demonstrate the impracticablity Of
any proposed route, or Of number Of such
routes, is next in importance only to the dis
covery of route altogether desirable and
satisfactory. The three routes examined by
Commander Selfridge on the recent Darien ex-
pedition must now be considered eliminated
from the problem of interoceanic communica-
ton. Even if the Atrato and the Tuyra routes
should be found equally impracticable, the
problem will be still further simplfed. The
field for examination will then be narrowed to
the Aspinwall and Panama route and to the
Nicaragua and Tehuantepec routes.
Admiral Davis, in his ''Report on Inter-
oceanic Railroads and Canals between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans" alludes to two
features of the Isthmus Of Tehuantepec as
having drawn to 1t the attention OF the early
discoverers- -one, the remarkable depression of
the Mexican plain at this point, and the other,
the photographic basin Of the Coatzacoalcos,
which drains the northern slope of the sunken
Cordilleras, and discharges itself into the Gulf
of Mexico. The idea had long been enter
tanned of opening a canal between the two
oceans, when, a hundred years ago, itreceived
fresh impulse from the unexpected discovery
in tho port of San Juan dc Ulloa, that some
cannon cast at Manila had crossed the isthmus
by the rivers Chimalapa and Coatzacoalcos.
This led to succession of surveys, which are
now of but little value, under the governments
of the viceroyalty and of the republic. 1t will
remain for Captain Shufeldt to reverse, If pos
sble, the opinion which Admiral Davis deduced
from the really accurate and reliable survey oy
the scientific commission under the direction
of Major Barnard, of the United states
Engineers, in 1S50-5l, that "th!s route
possesses but little merit as practicable line
for the construction Of a ship canal"
Captain Shufeldt may also succeed in proving
that the Nicaragua route for ship canal is
iucontestably superior to every other, as well
as peculiarly fortunate in having attracted the
favor of statesmen, capitalists and men Of
science, on account Of variety Of circum-
stances. Among these are enumerated, by
Admiral Davis, the accidental settlement Of
Greytown; the establishment Of a transit
through Nicaragua; the actual navigation Of
the San Juan river and of Lake Nicaragua
the connection of eminent names, including
that of the present French Emperor, who
foresees future Constantinople in the little
town Of Managua; and the agricultural and
mineral wealth of the Chontales regions. To
these circumstances may be added, says the Ad-
| mifal. 'the advances seemingly made pY