St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-02-25

direction to the San Juan river, from
which point the river will form the
canal for sixty-four miles to Lake
Nicaragua, then the lake will be
utilized for fftv-six miles. From the
western shore of the lake to the
Pacific at Brito is miles,
six miles of which distance is through
a low land, or basin, in which almost
no work of excavating will be re-
quired.
Two massive dams will be con-
structed, each seventy feet in height,
and eighteen and nineteen hundred
feet long respectively. One of them
will be built across the San Juan
river, with the hope of raising the
water above it to a level of ffty-six
feet above natural level, for a dis
lance of sixty-four miles. The other
dam will be situated in the large
basin west of Lake Nicaragua and
is expected to raise the water level
so as to innundate 1000 acres of
land. The lake is on the table-land
between the two ceans and is 10
feet above sea level. That is the
highest touched by the canal. To
reach that height, three locks will be
constructed IN each side of the lake,
having lifts of from twenty-one to
forty-fve feet each, having a length
within the gates of $50 feet and a
width of eighty feet, which will be am
pie capacity for the largest vessels.
The latest estimate of the chief en-
gineer places the actual cost of the
whole work, when the canal shall be
ready for use, at sos, 900, 900. The
undertaking is indeed a stupendous
one at that cost of construction, and
should the figures rise to 800, OOO,-
900 it will magnify the magnitude Of
the proposition. But immense as it
is, the enterprise is within the grasp of
American genius, and the work has
already a respectable beginning.
A force of 5000 men has been en-
gagged upon the preliminary work,
which is various, p%erplexing and large
~ tentative, but still necessary and
expensive. The real work ofconstruc-
ton was inaugurated Oct. 9Th, 1891,
and in three months time the canal
has been opened a distance of 5000
feet or nearly two-thirds of a mile,
having a width of $50 feet and a
depth of II feet.
But though favorablv begun, the
question may arise in some minds,
remembering the signal failure of the
Panama enterprise, conducted by De
Lesseps himself, will this work go on
to completion? In reply, we simply
say, it is undertaken by Americans
and they intend to do it. But will
the canal bring in such profits in the
line of as to justify the
enormous cost of its construction :?
Cannot the products of the Pacific
ocean and of the Pacific coast states
be carried to the East quicker and
more advantageously by the rail
roads which already cross the CONT
nent?
To this we reply that possibly the
fact is not generally known that the
= 70 five n0Cf Of - a. ,
by railroads and by steamships is as
five to one; and between railroads
and sailing vessels the cost is as nine
to one.
The advantages of this canal route
over that by Cape Horn, to the COM
merce of the world at large, but es-
pecially to that of the United States,
are patent to any careful investiga-
ton, so obvious and so great as to
preclude the necessity of mention in
detail.
The wheat products of Oregon,
Washington and California, in the
single year of 1890, amounted to
about ffty-six million bushels, which
being largely marketed in Europe
was compelled to take the danger
Gus and protracted passage around
Cape Horn, a distance of nearly six
teen thousand miles. By this Mica
ragua canal the distance will be only
about one-half as great, and ofcourse
the cost of transportation will be
correspondingly diminished, and the
hazard to perishable articles will be
greatly saved.
Between New York city and San
Francisco, the canal will shorten the
distance nearly eleven thousand miles