The San Francisco call., 1898-03-23
THE COST OFI
 THE BIG CANAL One Hundred Millions of Dollars Will Probably
 Do the Work.
That Is the Figure Set by the American Canal com
 mission.
Some Honest Differences of Opinion as to the Best Method of
 PrOcedure.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, March 22.-The Hert aids correspondent at Greytown, Nlc- aragua writes under date of Marcn Q. The Canal Commission, consisting or Admiral Walker, Colonel Haines ana Professor Haupt, has finished it's tour of observation and study of the canal line across this country, and is prepar- ing to return to New York. The com- mission has been in the country for nearly three months, and during this period it has gone over the line of the proposed canal from Greytown, on the Caribbean, to Brito, on the Pacific.
 Many of the important points of the canal route were visited twice on the journey westward, and the commits sioners return home with adequate knowledge of the country and, the de- tails of the proposed canal This store of knowledge will be increased by the monthly reports from the surveying, Photographic and geological parties that will remain at work along the ca nal line for some months. The report that the commission will prepare can hardly be ready before next fall.
 There is a vast amount of calculation to be done, looking to reaching Satis- factory estimates as to cost, and the final conclusions along the several lines will not be reached as long as there is possibility that the reports of the parties now in the field can mate rially affect the opinions of the mem bers of the board.
 It can be said on high authority that the provisional estimate of cost will be about S100, 900, although this figure may be altered if any radical changes are decided upon later. The estimate of cost by the Maritime Canal Com pany is about $70,000.000.
 The provisional estimate of the com- mission of 1895 was S133, ,000, 900, though it is said that this difference of $60, 900, 900 between the canal company's estimate and. that of the commission was largely due to the fact that the commission recommendations provided that many of the features of the project be on larger scale than was contemplated by the canal company.
 There are honest differences of opin- ion in the present commission as to the best ways of surmounting several of the engineering difficulties of the proposed canal. The great dam at Ochoa on the San Juan River, and the corresponding dam at La Flor, on the western division, the regulation of the summit leVel-theSe are the problems over which the members Of the commits sion have spent much time, and While the general disposition of the commits sion may be said to be favorable to the canal project, still there exist these differences which must disappear pe- fore a report which would be wholly satisfactory to the friends of the canal can be made.
 These differences of opinion, however, will be nodded into satisfactorv com promises in the months that will inter yene before the report is ready for. Congress The full report, when ready E should be the most complete and sat- isfactory document on the canal yet produced It will carry all possible bearings on the canal much further than ever before. The commission has a vast amount of data available from the canal company and previous Gov ernmental surveSs, and these will be supplemented by reports from many parties now at work all along the line from one ocean to the other.