Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-04-08
InterOceanlc Communication.

ttcL. lalk OF tpIue way ~ uNtlu iralS
porting goods around Cape Horn with
ont the trouble of twice shifting car
goes. 4 like problem Was under con-
sideration IN the eastern hemisphere
when TIE Asiatic and European trade
had to ioubc the Cap" If tiotl Hope
not as bad Il voyageas the Cape Horn
one but from its great iergth sensible
thing to get ri. Of.
The Suez canal solved the eastern
problem, and when De Lpsseps, under
whose management that canal was com
pleted, turned his attention to this side
Of the globe and began on the scheme
for ship canal across the Isthmus Of
Panama, the talk of getting ships from
the Pacific to the Atlantic and from the
Atlantic to the Pacific without going
around Cape Horn took new start.
There are now three plans that are
much talked Of in the business world
and whose advocates are or will be be-
foro Congress for help Of one kind or
another. They are the Panama ship
canal, the Nicaragua ship canal, and
the TohuWtepec ship railway. The
route to br gotten rid OF is the sll-water
route by way Of Cape Horn which
makes Il ships course from New York
to San Francisco IL ,G12 miles.
The IsiLmus OF Panama joining North
and Sonth America is between Aspin-
wall, seaport on the north upop the
Caribbean sea to Panama on the south
on the Bay of Panama about 43 miles
wide. 1t is between Aspinwall and
Panama that De Lesseps proposes to
construct ship canal. The territory
to be traversed is in the United States
Of Columbia and the government of
Columbi has made the necessary grants
to enable the company to use tho land
needed.
There il considerable Jealousy of the
scheme III question as it has been
thought the company would be under
European control. The estimated cost
of this canal is $l10, O00,OOD. 1t is to be
tide water canal-that is cut to the
seal level 10 that no locks will be needed
except ;.le lock to deal with the Pa
citc tide which is twenty feet higher
at Panama than the tide on the Atlantic
side at Aspinwall This is the com.
pany which Richard Thompson, lato
Secretary If the Navy, has accepted Il
position in, ana which Is perhaps push
ing its plans most actively. The dis
lance by it from New York TO SAP Fran
cisco is reduced to 6 o57 miles. It's 10.
cation is about 50 deg, west longitude
from Greenwich and about the oh par
allel of north latitude.
Tie Nicaragua ship c anal as proposed
would run from Grey Town, or San
Juan do Nicaragua, y seaport on the
Caribbean sea some 300 miies north
miles to Lake Nicaragua, Which it would
utilize, and from whose westerly shore
it would pass some - miles to the
Pacific coast at Nicaragua Brito. Iuis
canal company proposes to" climb
to the lake by locks and its advantages
are claimed to be that of healthfulnesS,
nearncss and cheapnoss. Its advocates
say that tue Panama route will cost
enormously, that the tunneling neces-
sary to make a tide water canal IL almost
imp.actieAb!e, and that the Panama.
gion is fearfully unhealthy both tor la
hOrefs and for mere passengers. They
claim the Nicaragua canal can be built
for SIS 600, 600. It's western terminus
is 400 miles nearer San Francisco than
Panama and there is something more
than that distance saved over the Pana-
ma route.
Five or six hundred niics 10 the
northwest of tie Nicaragua route is the
Isthnus of TehuGntepec separating the
Gulf of Mexico on the north from the
Gulf OF Tehuantepec OH the Pacific side
on the south. This istAmus is 13D
miles wide, but as q navJgal,le river
runs nearly 20 miles of 1t, tho distance
TO be overcome is He miles. Capt
Eads, the engineer who did tho famous
work at the mouth If the Mississippi
by the jetty system, proposes ship
railway across the Iehuantepec isthmus
estimating its cost ut SO 900. 600. The
route would be |, 200 to 800 miles
shorter from the Pacific aid Atlantic
principal seaports than that by the
Panama. Tho Nicaragua canal Is the
one in favor of which Gen. Grant has
written in the North Americ,m Rerietc.
In 1865 Simon Stevens and others oh.
tanned from the Legislature of Vermont
u charter for u railroad across the 18TH
mus of YehuIntepec aud the promoters
of that enterprise are said to DO fri. ndly
to the Ea,is plan. This seems TO DO Nh
enormous undertaking, being 10 less ~
on' than that Of carrying ocean steam
crs by r@il frocl one ocean to the other.
t. carry the largest steamers car of
| 200 wheels would be- needed, these
wheels running upon twelve parallel
rails. To load tie steamers the car
would be run under them by means Of
an extension Of the road bed into ~
short canal dug from the harbor. The
advocates OF the two canals OF course
regard Capt. Ends' scheme as imprac;i-
cab!e.
1t now locks as though the enter.
prising advocates of those measures
you ii get money enough to go at least
far enough with iLoir work to show
whether it is or is not practicable and
that by means Of one or the oth9r Of
these enterprises il few years will find
a!,ips making !Atir way by Canal or
rail- --parLAps by both -botweSn the
TWO ucrn1s wlihoat taxing the Cape
Horn route ar iinhlnG tho northwest
massage. -. Green N, uIt4in Frs cmun
LITTLE AIN Nd CAKES. lake four
ounces of sweet almonds and four "r
i've bitter ONES, nnr pound of pow