The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-07-28
Commander se,fridgs and His Darien ship
Canal Route.

lanai Aoutes
II is generally considered that the Darien
Isthmus exploring expedition has established
the fact that south of the Panama Railroad
there is no feasible route for an interOceanic
ship canal. From an inspection, however, Of
the maps, drawings and estimates of Com
mander Selfridge, it appears that he has dis
covered a route. which may be made available
for the passage of the largest ships from ocean
to ocean by means of short canal, estimated
to cost from one hundred and twenty-five to
one hundred and thirty millions of dollars.
The route lies between the Gulf of Darien
on the Atlantic side and the Bay of Cupica on
the Pacific. Entering from the Gull, Darien,
one of the outlets of the Atrato, the route is
up that great river for ono hundred and fifty
miles. For this distance, at all seasons of the
year, the Atrato-from q thousand to two
thousand feet wide and from thirty to sixty
feet in depths all that could be desired.
Against the current of some two knots an hour
ascending sailing vessels, as in the Mississippi,
would require tug. The canal, then,
by this route, will begin at point
one hundred and fifty miles up the Atrato,
from which point the excavation to the Pacific
by the Napipi River will be thirty two miles
and half. For twenty -four miles of this dis
lance the work will be light, for the ascent is
gradual; but for the remaining eight miles,
through mountainous ridge six hundred feet
high, skirting the Pacific coast, the work will
be heavy, including deep cut of four miles
and tunnel of four miles. Having assembled
forty feet above the ocean level, in ascending
the Atrato one hundred and fifty miles, there
will be required to the summit level of the
canal on the Atlantic side only nine locks of
ten feet lift each, while on the Pacific side
thirteen locks will be required The Napipi
River, from the summit level, it is estimated,
will furnish all the water needed to supply the
locks in both directions
We have here, then, from the navigable
Atrato distance Of some thirty-two miles
only to the Pacific; but that intervening
mountainous ridge which here skirts Cupica
Bay is the great difficulty. Captain Selfridge
cannot overcome it, and therefore proposes to
bore through it tunnel ninety feet high.
That tunnel of four miles is the drawback
which has led to the public judg-
ment that this route is impracticable. By
the Panama route canal of less than forty
miles from sea to sea can be made with, per-
haps, not more than twenty locks each way,
without tunnel; and by the Nicaragua route
Captain Pym, of the British navy, has esti-
mated that the cost of ship canal of medium
dimensions would be less than twenty-five mil
lions of dollars. Even by the Tehuantepec
route, according to the reports from Captain
Shutedt's expedition, ship canal, without
tunnel, may be excavated at much less ex-
pense than the short canal by this Darien
route, with its four mile tunnel.
For the general commerce of the world
passing between the two oceans the Darien
route of Commander Selfridge is the route, re-
CARELESS of cost, if we can do without that
tunnel Even with the tunnel it may be
proved the best route; but the enterprise will
at least be avoided until all doubts are re-
moved as to its advantages over any other
route All things considered, We think that
for the United States the Nicaragua route is
the best for an interOceanic ship canal on a
grand scale, and that in this view it ought to
be surveyed by Commander Selfridge or some
other competent officer of the navy.