Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-03-26
The Isthmus Canal.

| Nicaragua and Darien ship, cana
routes, arrived here this morning from
Pensacola. After taking on board a
deck load of coal she will sail directly
for Greyton. The officers composing
| the Commission ere as follows:
Major Walter Mcfarland, United
States Corps Engineers. - 81
Captain w. H. Heuer, United States
Corps Engineers.
Professor Henry MITCHELL United
States Coast Survey. 20 -
General Jacob Ammen.
d. s. Walton, civil engineer.
Commander Il. P. Lull, United
States Navy, Of the Nicaragua expe-
| dition.
Lieutenant J. w. Miller, United
States Navy, Of the Nicaragua expe-
dition.
A. G. Menocal, civil engineer, of the
Nicaragua expedition. Ail
Lieutenant j. II. Sullivan, United
States Navy, Of Darien expedition.
Commander T. o. Selfridge, United
States Navy, will join the party at
Aspinwal. Ef fsz.v tEt..s.E
These gentlemen have all been
chosen for their special aptitude to
the work before them. Major McFar-
lands experience in the army emin-
emily fits him to report upon the va
rious engineering difficulties and adj
vantages of both lines, while the long
term Of service of Captain Heuer, at
Blossom Rock, in San Francisco har-
Dor, and the more extensive operations
at He'll Gate, places him among the
best authorities in regard to the cost
of the excavation and blasting of rock.
Professor Mitchells long term of duty
in connection with the coast survey,
as we'll as his known scientific abili-
ties, makes his opinion on the subject
of harbors thoroughly authoritative.
General Ammen is graduate of West
Point, and before the war was for a
long time Professor of Military and
Civil Engineering in the universities
of Indiana and Georgetown, KY.
During the war he commanded a
brigade of Ohio troops. Mr.. Walton
is civil engineer of high repute, and
has made speciality of the canal ques-
ton during the past ten years, being
at present a member OF the State
Board of Engineers for louisiana.
On the arrival of the Gettysburg at
Greytown the Nicaragua route will be
thoroughly examined from the Attain
tic to the Pacific. Professor Mitchell
will, with the assistance of the officers
of the Nicaragua expedition, make a
thorough investigation of the harbor
of San Juan del Norte, its history, the
action of the currents of the ocean and
the flow of the San Juan river, with
the view of determining whether or
not the port can be restored to its orig
inal depth, and, what is more impor-
tant, made permanent. The commits
sion will then take passage in one OF
the river steamers, stopping wherever
it may be deemed necessary to make a
reconnaissance of the line surveyed by
the expedition of 1873. They will
then proceed by steamer across the
lake and take up the western division,
noting the positions of the contem-
plated docks and the character of the
surrounding country. The commission
will then return to GreytOwn and then
take the Gettysburg to Aspinwall, or
possibly proceed to Panama by the
mail steamer, which touches at San
Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast. At
Panama Commander Selfridge will
join the party, and the Darien route
will be traversed from west to east.
Here again the harbors will receive
special attention, and the character of
cutting necessary to open the proposed
tunnel noted. The possibility of the
restoration of Greytown harbor and
the practicability of Commander Self
ridges tunnel are the main points of
discussion by the gentlemen of the
commission, as they are the only engi-
neering difficulties to be Overdone, and
on the relative merits and dement's Of
these projects the ultimate choice of a
route seems to depend.
AS the Nicaragua line is the first to
be visited, the following resume of it's
advantages, obtained from the note
book of one Of the officers of last
years. expedition, may be Of interest.
The Territory of Nicaragua is stu
ate much nearer the United States
than that of Darien, and therefore, in
a politico-economical light, O ship
canal constructed at that point has q
great advantage. On account of the
CONFORMATION of the eastern coast lit
tie distance is saved on the Atlantic
side, but the voyage from San Fran
cisco and other Occidental ports to
New York is shortened over 800 miles
by reason of the southeastern extern
sion of the Isthmus. The climate of
Nicaragua is much more salubrious
than that Of the countries nearer the
Equator, while the country, being
populated and comparatively open to
the westward of the lake, supplies of
all descriptions can be always cheaply
and readily obtained, though this does
not hold true Of the eastern division.
The Rio San Juan is navigable for
steamers of light draught, and the
transportation of stores and material
necessary during the construction of a
great work can thus at all seasons be
insured. The route at first sight seems
undesirably long, defect that on
closer ~perusal of Commander LulPs
report, partially vanishes, the slack
water navigation being in the interior
Of the country, instead Of near the
mouth of a river subject to the fresh
cts of tropical Summer. -
The lake of Nicaragua Is reservoir
for all the surrounding country, and
like all inland seas is not subject to
sudden changes of level; and the four
dams proposed to deepen the San Juan
are in no danger of demolition from
causes which, at any other place,
would destroy them the first day after
their erection. The lake being ninety
eight miles long, with an average
width of thirty miles and depth OF
thirteen fathoms, discharges by its
only outlet-theHSan Juan-enough
water to supply lockage for the entire
fleets of the world, and to feed at the
minimum fourteen canals of twenty
six feet depth. The elevation above
the lake on the western side is but sew
enty-eight feet, and this but spur Of