Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-01-22
INTEROCEANIC CANALS.
Comparison of the Panama and Mica
ragua ROute-A Naval Officers Ex-
plains the ExeaYating Problem.

y. y. IN, WHITES DIS lO1lOWS 10 Iuo
Portland (Me) Advertiser: AS the
operations of the French at Panama
IN the construction of an interoceanic
canal at that point are now attracting
attention, I beg leave to submit to
your readers some general remarks on
the question of routes for an Ameri-
can canal which will connect the two
oceans that wash our eastern and
western shores.
The French propose to construct at
Panama a sea-level canal--to cut
through all distractions and elevat-
ions that may exist between the two
oceans, or in other words to have the
canal simple strait, leading from the
Atlantic to the Pacific.
will now give some of the difficult
ties which the adoption of this plan
and route necessitate. For at least
five miles, this cut will average 1856
feet in debt. with a maxium dept al
one point of $40 feet, necessiating in
the entire route the removal of over
$50, 000,0 cubic yards of material
earth, clay, and rock; the French en-
gineers placing the amount of rock at
go, 900, 600 cubic yards
The problem is not alone to exca-
vate this enormous quantity, but what
to do with it, where TO dump it? The
cost of excavatlng earth, clay, ETC.,
is one thing, provided it is deposited
nearly by, say within one of two
hundred feet; but when it must be re-
moved several thousand feet, if not
several miles, the cost of the work
no
the natural conditions of the Panama
route are such that it must be done.
Mr.. de Lesseps and his followers
have made comparisons between the
work at Panama and the work Of con-
structing the Suez canal, but they
have failed to state the important fac
tors which must govern such opera
TONS
At Suez the line was run through
country the surface of which averaged
but little above the level of the sea-a
part of the distance being through
lakes and depressions where dredges
of great capacity could be operated.
At Suez the material was mostly sand,
and could be deposited near the line;
practically, there is no rainfall at
Suez through the entire year, and
consequently no surface drainage or
water-courses with which to contend.
Now at Panama the very reverse of
all these favorable conditions pre-
walls. The rainfall is enormous,
amounting annually to 140 inches.
The Chagres river, the control of
which is the greatest OF the many en-
cheering problems at Panama, has
been known to rise 80 feet ia a single
night. Of course it is out of the quest
ion, toreceive such quantity of water
as is represented by flood in this
river, into a canal. 1t is in the plans
Of the French engineers to construct
a dam at a g ven point which will
hold back one, Or possibly two, of
these floods. This dam is to be 14O
feet high. and in itself is great and
expensive piece of work. 4. lateral
canal is then to be made for the pur-
pose of draining this flood water off
to the sea; and this laterDal canal
must have dimensions nearly equal to
the main canal itself.
[ mention these facts about the
Panama canal undertaking, in order
that the reader may have some idea of
the character of the problem.
The lowest estimate made by the So
called Paris canal congress for ship
canal via the Panama route, was
S269, 900, 600, and though de Lesseps
has stated that it could be constructed
for a much less sum, his statements
have not, in any respect, been verii-
ed; on the contrary, the work already
done has cost, proportionally, a far
greater sum.
Neither can any confidence be plac-
ed in his declaration that the canal
will be completed in 1885, By the
report of his own engineers, less than
5000, 600 cubic yards has been exca-
waited up to May last, out of total of
$50, 1000, 900 cubic yards.
The expenditures of money has al
ready been enormous, even if iber
al amount be allowed to cover cost of
plant, installation, etc., amounting
probably to $50, 900, 900 or $50, 600, 900,
Including 100000 paid for the
Panama railroad, which, it would be
well to know, has ceased, practically,
to be an American concern.
Such are a few of the facts regard
ing the Panama canal, now four years
in course Of construction.
Of the Nicaragua route for a ship
canal [ will now say a few words,
leaving the reader to draw his own
deductions as to which, it or Panama,
is the most ageous-looking at
the question as practical commercial
undertaking.
The Nicaragua route embraces
Lake Nicaragua and its outlet, the
San Juan river This lake covers an
area OF about 5000 square miles; it's
surface is about 106 feet above the
level of the sea, and its western edge
is IL miles from the Pacific ocean,
while its outlet, the San Juan, empties
into the Atlantic. At one point in the
strip of land separating this lake from
the Pacific the elevation of the land
is but Al feet above the level of the
lake. 1t is proposed to cut through st
this low point (Which, By the way, is
the most remarkable depression in the