The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1880-02-22
THE LESSEPS CANAL.
A Description of the Route To Be Adopted
and the Main Features of the Scheme.
New York World. Feb. 10 ]

| A dispatch from Panama Announces that
the commission Ut engineers appointed ny M.
de LfssnpS to re-eXsmine the route For an
interoeean.c canal proposed by Lieut.. Bona
parte w 4c and Nj. T.. Recus has concluded
| its survey. ana unanimously reported that
the work ia ent,reiy practicable. NJ de Leg
saps having now his report ready was to
leave the istbmus To-day for this city, where
he Will probably arttva on the tWenty-fth
instant. In the meantime Il description of
the canal route he propu5as to open Will not
be found embarrassing.
nj. de Lasseps' route is more or less that of
the Panama Railroad. The proposed canal
| starts from Limon Bay at n depth of about
% feet and n little north from the leland OF
Manzanillo, by which 1t will be protected from
the violent northeastern winds prevailing
there principally during the dry season A
great dock and pier about 1000 metres In
length are to be built aud will add to the
safety of the port. On the Pacific side the
canal debouchts far out into the Bay of Pan
anna at n proper depth. The total length of
the canal will DO Is s miles, including the two
extreme ends under the sea. The depth Of
water is fixed at $50 metres SO feet. La
hard rocks the width at the surface Of water
will be % metres and on the soft earth 56 me
tres The slopes will be | to 2 to vertical
for soft rock. 2 to vertical for earth and 0 on
hard rock. While travcrsing hard rock tho
vertical sides OF the canal Will rise two me-
tres above the water level. The minimum
radius OF the curves Is fixed at 5000 metres.
i ne canal Will ADMIT only OF the navigation
Of one vessel, not being wide enough for two
alongside of ench other. But Mt short dis
tances It Will have openings in which q vessel
will wilt for the passage Of another.
The country through which the first few
miles Of the canal will cross, on the Atlantic
side. Ia very low. Its formation Ia of debris
Ut corals and shells. The canal, avoiding the
small hills OF Mindi and the railroad line.
takes UP the old bed Of the Chagres, which 1t
follows up to tho Sierra ~ Mindi, and hence
1.,f Antv l..t..
the Iona del Tigre, on the seventh klometre.
the canal crosses the River Chagres twice
and the deadly swamps VI the River Trinidad.
known az Milet's Swamps Toward the
twentieth kllometre the axis OF the canal Ia
pushed northward In order that II may more
easily cross the curve of Buhio Soldado
through the lowest possible hills. Up To this
place the ground Is constituted Of trachytic
conglomcrates. AT Buhio Soldado tho height
above the sea- level IL thirty metres, but i'm
mediatcly after the region is again low, From
BuhiO SoldadO the canal takes np the River
Chagres Itself and enters tho Valley or the
Frijple and of Tabernila 1t then uses the
River Chagres for nearly quarter of mile,
railroad line ~ Cerro Taylor tahont 100 feet
high above the average sedleval, and then
returns To the valley Ut the Chagres. with
whose bed II again confounds Itself, and 30
continues more or less up To Matachn.
Az Matachin, forty three kilometres from
the Atlantic terminus Of the canal, the height
above the average level III the sea il but four
teen metres. There the region rises quite
sharply to a hight vi eighty metres at
Culebra. A this dividing ridge is but seven
miles from Matnchin IL will be seen that the
region there rises from seventy-One feet up To
ING. From Cuehra W Rio Pedro Miguel On
the Pacific SLOPE the distance at tho basis Of
tho triangle there formed by the Andes il b,lt
four miles, and yet the descent il from 2s6
feet To thlty-thrae feet, u grade ut 253 feet ia
rather less than four miles. From Pedro
Miguel down to the Pacific the region again
II quite low. very seldom rising more than
twenty feet above the average sea-leveI.
As Nj. do Lesanps Is bound to have n sea
level canal II Will be seen that either q tunnel
or n great cut will have to be made through
the mountain. His idea now is to make a deep
cut. The rock In the mountain Is doleritic,
but 1t IL said by late experiments not to be
too hard.
One OF the greatest difficulties In the con
structiOn Of this can VI will be the handling or
the River Chagies, which, by Its sudden
rising, sometimes reaching forty-three feet In
twenty-four hours would certainly iDjure the
canal II not held back or diverted In some
way M. de Lesseps' engineers propose to
retain the River Cruces. near Matachin, by
building a great dam between Cerro Peado
and Cerro de Matachin, two comic hills, and
then let the water OF the vast artificial lake
thus formed above be thrown out slowly by
means of sutces. Az tho same time q new
channel ia to be constructed out Of the pres
ent river north of the canal line. and it Is be-
lieved that this channel and the dam will
afford ample means Of egress to the freshets
In the Upper ChaRres.