The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-03-02
POSSIBLE
TO BUILD
THE CANAL
Result Of Official IN
stigations in
Nicaragua.
Government Commission
Ready to Submit a
Report.
Will Declare the Project for a
Connecting Waterway
Feasible.
WOULD COST 500, Ooo,O 900
Full Details for the Construction Not
Yet Decided Upon by the
Experts.
Copyrighted. 1898. by James Gordon Bennett


NEW YORK, March IA CORE
spondent Of the Herald, writing under
date Of February IL, from Rivas, Near
aqua, says: The Canal Commission
has finished it's work on the division
Of the canal project between Lake
Nicaragua and the Pacific, and will
cross the lake on the Victoria on a spe-
cial trip to-day or tomorrow. The rev.
dictionary outbreak delayed the COM
mission five days. the Victoria not be-
ing available, as the Government was
using the steamer for the transporting
of troops.
The preliminary report on the canal
project could be made, should it be re-
quested, before the end of this session
of Congress. 1t would state that the
| canal is wholly possible, although spe-
| cific reports as to more important fea-
lures could not be made. The cost Of
the canal, based on study and observa-
ton made up to the present time, is
reckoned at about 500, 900.
Arriving at San Carlos, the party
will go down San Juan River as far
as Ochoa, proceeding from this point
! into Greytown, over the line Of the
canal. The line has been cleared and
well provisioned camps established for
the use of Admiral Walker and his
party. The commission will make
/ thorough. observations of the topogra-
ply of the country generally, as well
as Of that Immediately concerned in the
canal line.
The committee will leave Rivas thor
oughly familiar with the canal line
from the spot where it leaves Lake
Allajos River to its western terminus
! at Brito. Up to the present date the
| commission has spent twenty days on
the western division, not including five
days delay. The greater part of this
time, to be sure, has been passed at
headquarters in Rivas, but many dsys
have been passed at various points
along the line.
Four days were spent at the site of
the proposed dam at La Flor. in camp
| about three miles from Brito. While
| camped at La Flor the commission
| studied the coast line at Brito. There
is no harbor at Brito. There is merely
an indentation of the coast line, but the
construction and maintenance of a
| harbor are not regarded as difficult. On
this point nearly all experts who have
studied the situation are agreed. The
details alone remain to be worked out
and the individual opinions of the COM
mission are to be welded into one.
1t will not require nearly the time for
the commission to come to conclusion
! in regard to the harbor at Brito that
it Will to reach conclusion as to the
La Flor dam feature of the canal COM
| pany's project. The Ludlow Commits
sion of 1895 refused to consider a dam
at this point at all. in consequence Of
unsatisfactory results of the canal
company's borings, and suggested an
other route for a canal in this vicinity
will ha lxy no 1nr1fh he hnfn bn
commission finishes it's discussion of
this feature. The views of the mem
| berS vary considerably.
| An interesting compromise of the
situation has been suggested. 1t would
be to construct two dams, one at La
| Flor and one at a point just west of the
| Divide, some miles east of La Flor. The
eastern dam would be on higher ground
and about forty feet high. BY this COM
| promise two basins would be created
instead of one, and La Flor dam would
become a much less formidable under
taking. The tax upon its strength and
permeabiltty would be much de-
creased.
This suggested compromise, when
fully worked out, may possibly become
the commissions solution of the prob
lem of the western division should it
develop that it is feasible in all it's as
poets, and should no better solution be
lOuHu. flnai conclusions on this point,
| however, as we'll as on. other important
features of the line, will not be reached
until the reports of various parties
which bear so materially upon the
whole canal project have been made.
j. w. G. Walker and his party have
moved their camp from San Pablo on
Lajas, and are now several miles fur
Their westward, with the canal line be-
ing cleared inland from the lake for
about six miles The party is work.
| ing under instructions to determine
that the canal line as laid at present
is only line, and cross sections are be-
ing run 1000 feet on either side of the
line. The canal company's cross sec
lions We're run 400 feet The present
survey will consequently result In a
typographical map showing a 2000- feet
width across the western division, save
in localities were higher land prevails.
Surveys of the coast line have de-
| veloped the fact that the shore line of
| lower end runs into the lake five miles
farther than the existing map shows 1t.
| In other words the lake at this point
| is five miles shorter than 1t has pre-
viously been held to be. Lieutenant
| Hanus has also found a thirty-foot
channel running three miles nearer to
! the San Juan River entrance at San
Carlos than the present plans or charts
show. This would mean a reduction
of three miles In the amount of dredg-
ing to be done from the river to deep
| water in the lake.