The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1880-01-09
Admiral Ammen Explains the
Various Projects.
a Comparison of the Feasibility. Cost
and Advantages of the Tehuan-
tepec, Panama and Mica
ragua Routes.

WbsHlhdfON, JHuHhFy y u.
For the purpose Of giving those Interested
In the interoceano ship-eanal u succinct Idea
Of what seems likely TO promote. and what
seems likely to prevent, Its construction, at
least by m American company, make the
following statement:
TEaIANTEPEd ROUTE
For some extraordinary reason the Isthmus
of Tehuantepee Is agein presented as pos
sibe line Of canal construction and survey
of Il Is again proposed. Yet we know that It
mas q summit level OF 754 feet and will re-
anire 140 locks. or seven times tho number or
the Nicaragua canal. 1t has line of actual
excavation Of III miles, or more than douhls
that required on the Nlearaguan line, and II
has n proposed dredging o. n river subject To
fipoda for distance of 35 miles. IT, has also
to draw Its water hy feeder 27i4 miles long.
requiring n dam So feet high to gst the neees-
safy elevation, having four tunnels aggrsgat-
Ing 81 miles and then q deficient water sup
ply. BY report of Engineer Fuartas, page 2G
Of Tehuantppee survey under Capt. Shufeldt
the River Oorti Mt point A, map No. e. is given
at 1913 cubic feet per second. fKaetly the
quantity required for the alimantatinn Of the
canal aa given on page 81. All of the avail.
able streams were found to yield 2ti3 cubic
feet per aeeond, or 495 feet more than re-
auired. He estimates the loss In the feeder
through filtration, evaporation. etc. at $50
cubic feet per second, thus making the de-
livery amount to 1868 feet per second. making
n deficiency of 55 cubic feet per second
On page 81 he cites two examples of feeder
losses. That OF st. Prjve, 10000 feet long,
loses three-fourtbs OF It's water. II loss BIT
the same rate should occur no water would
reach through the seventh mile. In the ex-
ample Of the feeder Of Boulet, which is bG 900
feet long, II loss Mt the same rate should oe-
eur the water would not reach through tho
fourteenth mile. In the first case The water
II A.
proposed feeder. and In the second case 1t
would reach one-half OF It's length. He states,
no weyer that the nature Of the soil along tho
Corti. or proposed feeder from It, is well eal-
culatad to prevent filtration, but In giving the
different sections along the feeder no men
tions TINT some portions Of the cutting and
trnnallipg are In "shale and drift," or "humus
and loose earth" In the fifth division there
Ia tunnel two miles long which, he says,
"can be easily excavated. the ground being
very soft" On some portions Of the feeder
he states the formation to be "elay, snnd-
STONE, marble and compact limestone"
There are numerous .proposed dams Tor
the intereeption OF small streams
crossing the line; an aqueduct 1900 feet long;
throughout several miles Of It's course the
feeder Ia raised above the natural surfaces, q
condition favorinU a large loss through Ultra
tion. The cost Of locks Mt the same estimate
of the Nicaragua route would be Sb0,000, 900;
nf actual excavation, S45 600 900; OF feeder on
Panamn route tnonp being required vim Niea-
ragua). $4,000, 900: then the excavation OF the
Coafzqcoaleos river for thirty-five miles
would sum up probably S5OO0000 tho estl-
mated cost on the upper San Juan. and
S. 600 600 more. as In Nicaragua, Tor hhrhors
presenting the snme difficulties, making q
total of $3.50. 600 900. Tho commission ap-
pointed by the President. Of which | WAS
member, instead OF adopting The estimate Of
25 per cent of the engineer to cover eontin-
gencles on the Nicaragua route, thought it
necessary to double the estimate, and that,
too. where building material of all kinds wss
abundant and convenient There 10 still
greater reason to double tho eetmate Of the
Tehuanteper route, making IL $500, ,0g0, 900. and
TINT. too, "a is shown, without water sup
ply adequate MT least during the dry season.
Another survey cannot materially change
the summit level already determined, 1t can
not change the length of the canal 1t cannot
add to the water supply without an increase
In the estimate; 1t cannot by any means
change the relative disadvantages which un-
happily exist In its comparison with Nicara-
gua. What then, is thu purpose, what the OBJ
iect Of survey Certainly there is not the
faintest hope of those who are Informed TINT
conditions will be found materially different
from The above statement. whatever the as
sertion may be.
NICARAGUA ROUTE.
The Nicaragua route has In canalizntion
6ta4 miles; the remainder is either lake or
slack water navigation In n river not subject
to floods. Tho water supply js twenty times
more thnn could be used in iockage; the sum
NIT level OF the canal LOT feet, and of the
divide between the oceans $50 feet. The cost
of the canal rs estimated by the civil en-
gineer without an allowance for contingent
cies was $50, 900 900. and the cost named by
the com mission sl00, ,000.00D.
PANAMA ROUTE.
The Panama route was carefully located Mt
the request of the commission, and line
located at an elevation of 1913 feet above the
ocean, which will probably require an In
crease Of four or five feet, as shown by the
flood OF last November. The coat Of the last
named route on common basis for labor and
materials with Nicaragua was more than 80
per cent greater, and will In fact cost more
than double to execute the work 1t would
doubtless be interesting to the public and ad-
vantageons to hayethe two last named routes
atrumental surveys In hand to approximate
the relative cost OF execution. To include
the TehuanteDec route would be to include
what is simply impossible of execution by
reason OF the physical conditions above
named. The object could not be to hope to
make n canal there, but simply to prevent its
execution elsewhere.
At this time there are In Nicaragua two
European parties who are asking q cOncas-
sion. In March last one was agreed Upon to
M. Blanehet, and only lacked one vote in the
Senate to confirm IT.. The problem then la,
shall we place no obstacle In the wav of an
American company, and thus probably ena-
BILE 1t to secure a grant with the idea of only
permitting tolls that would be literally re-
munerative or shall we place these obstacles
In the way and certainly throw the conces-
sion into the hands Of Europe and allow them
to impose their proposed tolls upon as? They
may very well say that we are not compelled
to pass through the canal: 1t la simply op-
tional whether we go that wav or via Cape
Horn. We cannot very well propose to die
tate what these tolls shall be- at least unless
we do so In advance OF the granting OF a con-
c,sslon by Nicaragua, and even then 1t would
seem somewhat pretantious In view of our
inability TO support such a demand, either In
reason or hy material force
/ NAV add that the commission appointed
by the President In 1879, which sent In IFS re-
port In 1876, had all OF the inform alton thought
necessary respecting all the region involved
In short the only tppn rni1taa worth lnokfnn af