Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-08-03
~ locks to the level of Lake Nicaragua,


10 feet above the oceans; great dams
must be built to extend the lake level in
each direction. One of these will have to
he over 100 feet high When thus extend
ed the ITO feet level will be 142 miles long,
leaving I'M round numbers, 2S miles of
nal proper to be constructed. Harbors
must be drodgcd and constructed at both
ends. The ell gineering problems involved arc
very grave and the cost will be enormous.
Mr.. Bliss considers the character OF Lake
Nicaragua to be a formidable objection to
this route. Storms and tornadoes Of great
fury are frequent uponit. Hequotes an Eng
lsh traveller, Mr.. Frederick Boyle, who
says that lake is tho stormiest inland wa
ter upon the continent, If not in the
world" and the most dangerous piece of
water on which he ever sailed He adds
that the Transit Company Commodore
Nanderbilts) lost seven steamers, blown
ashore or swamped, and that he never saw
sen or ocean that could compare with it in
violence and treachery" The volcanic
character of the region, Mr.. Bliss thinks
will cause earthquakes, fatal to any canal
with locks and gates. These things cause
a danger zone" of great extent.
The great advantage of the San Bias
route If it can be built. is that it will be
on a sea level. To which Mr.. Bliss adds
the following:
First-Perfect harbors at both ends, that
having been formed by nature, will remain
natural harDocs without cxpense--over
Panama with one tolerable harbor at As
ninWAll to ho
by dredging. In the Bay of Panama-over
Nicaragua, which has no harbors at all
and needs four-one, at least, of which,
that at Greytown, would have to be con-
stantly renewed.
Second-The shortest route known--about
half the ltnSth of the Panama and be-
tween one-sixth and one-seventh of that
of Nicaragua.
Third-Time of transit, seven hours or
less al San Bias, against 10 hours or moro
at Panama, and A. hours or more at Mica
ragua, dependent upon condition and
working Of locks and lock-gates
Foucth-Or the part of the San Bias, en-
tire escape of the danger zone as against
% miles within that zone at Panama, and
157 miles within the same at Nicaragua--a
most important and decisive advantage
Fifth-Entire escape from summit level,
with its difficulties. and dangers of water
supply, on the part of the San Bias, as
ragua. and 1870 feet at Panama
Sixth-Rainfall; a probable moderate
rainfall at San Bias. against SO inches per
year at Panama and 256 inches at Mica
Cauga.
Seventh-No rivers, no floods. no locks,
no storms no volcanoes, no revolutions, no
dams. no danger-Zone. and no annual
maintenance or repairs at San Bias,
against all these in their most violent
forms at Nicaragua, and a majority of
them, in perhaps lesser degree, at Pana-
ma.
iIchth-t.ngpee~ng problems, absolute
ly but one, that of tunnel. as against all
those of the other routes hereinbefore set
forth.
/ The San Bias tunnel, Mr.. Bliss says
would be less than eight miles long and lie
believes it to be entirely practicable He
says:
. Under modern methods, shafts could be
sunk at each mile or so along this ~ miles
of tunnel, from the bottoms of which the
work of drifting each way along the top
Of the proposed tunnel could go on, as
well as at the two entrances, and the real
tunnolng work need only be the driving
of this small opening or drift, and its wild
ening to the width of the required tunnel;
all the remainder of the excavation, as
long ago suggested by Mr. Walter Shan
icy. the eminent cnSllUaer ana contractor
of Montreal. would be open cutting, and
the several shafts sunk to the top of the
proposed tunnel would operate as ventila-
! tors during the construction and after
ward. The material OF which the Cordil-
lera is composed, being of granite and trap
as determined by the biologists accom-
pany the Selfridge expedition, is of the
very best for tunneling purposes. and the
amount of material to he rcmov esl-73, 900 =
90 cubic wards for the whole canal In
Guiding the tunnel-s but a small fraction
of the $50, 900 cubic yards remaining to
be excavated at Panama. according to the
reports of Lieutant Winsow and Lieuten-
amt Mclean.
! Thirty years ago, in the opinion of en-
eineers and the general public, a tunnel
might be thought a fatal Objectionable
to-day with thousand miles of tunnels
for mining. for railroads. and even for
canals, many of them OF even greater
length than here required, in full opera
ton and with one of 20 miles in length
to connect Ireland with England, and one
of 81 miles to connect England with
France. both under the sea, projected, and
the great double tunnel-10,0O feet under
the Simploa Pass, determined to be built,
it Is too late to make the fact of a tunnel
being required an objection.
Mr.. Bliss reference to the crazy schemes
for tunnels under the British Channel and
the Irish Sca-tunneIs to talk about but that
never will be built and that would not be
used If they were built-do not strengthen,
his argument, otherwise it has much force
and If his facts and figures cannot be sue
ccssfully controverted. the route he IA
'yors will come into prominence before the
new canal commission and before the pub