Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-19

who have had go much to battle
against, but still struggling and beat
ling down barrier after barrier see to-
day the question of isthmian transit
almost an assured one.
For ages the cooling breath of the
Atlanta trade winds has almost
blended the roar OF the surf at Grey
town with the soft murmur of the
Pacific as it breaks ON the pebbled
beach at Brito, while constantly in
lcreasing commerce cries out to the
world, and the two oceans, within
sight of each other from the pass of
Buena Vista, are patiently awaiting
the day when the mind of man will
make them one.
| Besides the commercial advantages
that will accrue to the United States
from this Union, it will maintain our
national integrity on the Pacific and
reassert that influence with the other
Republics of this continent which
naturally belongs to us. New Orleans
will have a brilliant future, becoming
the near Deighbor of Chile, Peru and
other rich countries along the west
coast of South America, while New
York will be brought over 1000 miles
nearer San Francisco, and the dis
tance between other cities proper
tionately decreased.
DISTINGUISHED EXPLORERS.
From the time of Columbus down
to the present day every available
part of the Isthmus has been sur
veyed with the ultimate object of &c.
lecting the most feasible route for
ship canal, and this narrow strip of
land between the two oceans has been
the scene of international strife for
many years. The natives still
remind you that it was in
Nicaragua, not far from the
present site of Greytown, that
Lord Nelson began his brilliant
career by seizing the mouth of the
Rio San Juan, thus seeking to obtain
control of the lake and river, and that
later, in 1916, an effort was made to
liberate Prince Louis Napoleon Bona
parte, afterward Emperor, in order
that he might accept a concession to
construct canal by this same route.
History thus presents an array OF
the most brilliant men Of each CEN
tury that have all turned to Lake
Nicaragua as their Mecca, and the
main factor in tho solution of the
problem that has so vexed the COM
mercial world.
l Notwithstanding the many surveys
that have been made throughout the
length and breadth of the Isthmus,
only three have ever assumed any
tangible form. These are a sea-level
canal at Panama, a ship railway at
Tehuantepec, and lock canal at
:. Nicaragua.
u UNFORTUNATE PANAMA.
| The utter failure of the Panama
Canal, which no amount of capital
can ever make success, is too we'll
known to the world. More than
$3.50 ,000, 900 have been expended thus
! far and little more than one-tifth OF
work completed, while the control OF
the Chagres river, which is the key to
the whole problem, is still unsolved,
and the Culebra cut presents insur-
mountable difficulties to the present
method of attack. Even the French
: people themselves are beginning to
; lose faith in De Lesseps, the man oi
destiny. whose previous successes led
him into an undertaking, the engin-
eering difficulties of which had not
been sufficiently studied.
Added to these came another and
greater enemy, the climate and fatal
miasma, which but few survive.
When the Panama road was built it
was an old saying that each rail rep
resented. the life of laborer. Though
this may be an exageration, what
will be the death roll presented to
the world when the work is over and
all the excavated earth has been ex-
posed to the action of the burning
! sun?
| Even were it practicable to finish
this route it would never be come O
thoroughfare to sailing vessels, for
Panama drowsily sleeps in the calm
belt ofthe equator, while Nicaragua lies
in the region of perpetual trade winds.
This calm belt is tongue-shaped, the
base of which touches Panama and
! extends a short distance north and
south, terminating in a point near the
Equator.
With the death of Captain Eads,
whose railway project across Tehuan-
tepec never met the approval of ship
builders and nautical men in general
came the end of this method of tran
sit, so that the world to-day turns to
Nicaragua as the only feas BILE route
by which the two oceans will ever be
joined. Across this region careful
and exhaustive surveys have been
made, so that the location is not a
theoretical but an actual one, every
foot of the line having been measured
with chain and stadia, while skillful
engineers observed each angle.
OBJECTIONS TO THE NICARAGUA ROUTE
| There are several objections urged
against this route, none of which,
| however, present any engineering
difficulties that are not capable ot
being mastered by modern methods
They are:-
/ 1. Reconstruction of the two har'
bors at the terminl.
2. The dam at Ochoa.
3. The embankment in the valley
of the San Francisco.
4 4. The employment of locks.
u 5. Volcanic origin of the country
Engineers Menocal and Peary have
! successfully demonstrated the man
| ner in which the first four will be
treated, and the remains of ruins and
other structures in this section show
the little need of apprehension from
volcanic formation.
In all probability the final route
selected upon which the company will
begin work will differ but little from
that advocated by Mr.. Menocal in
1885. Still Mr.. Peary intends to make
thorough and detailed instrumental
survey Of every possible feature, and
| if the engineering problem can in any
way be simplifed, a new line will be
run. Both Mr.. Monocal's and the
route laid out by Commodore Lull in
1870 q ro fonaihlo and idontioal in tho