The evening times., 1899-09-21
THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT.
An Expedition to Look for Il Water
way for Which COlumbus Searched.
From the St. Louis Globe -Democrat)

Nrom the st. Louis Globe e-Democrat.)
Another expedition is going in quest o.
''the secret of the strait For 400 years
the secret has remained unsolved. The
last voyage of Columbus was in search o,
this strait" The discoverer believed he
would find somewhere through Central
, America passage by which he could sail
to the Pacific and TO the Indies. In
1902, with his humble caravels he trie /
every entrance along the Caribbean side
of the isthmus, only to turn back disap
pointed. Columbus found tradition but
not a strait The Indians told of time
| handed down through unnumbered genera
| tons OF ancestors when canoes were pad
died from ocean to ocean, but none of
| them could guide TO the route
After Columbus came other navisators
| who sailed up and down the isthmus. seek
| ing for what they were at last reluctantly
compelled to admit did not exist-a water
connection between the Atlantic and the
Pacific. 1t was a search as bathing as
| those for the Golden Fleece, the Holy
Grail, and the North Pole. Still later
came explorers who, accepting the conclu-
sion that no strait was there, sought to
! locate il as il once was, that they might
restore the passage which nature had
! closed. Modern science turned its power
| full searchlights on the problem which had
| deied Columbus. The secret of the
/
lost themselves in the CordilIeras looking
| for the place where waters from the two
| oceans may have mingled before some con-
vulsion raised the barrier and completed
| the isthmian connection between the two
| continents. And now one section Of the
new Isthmian Canal Commission has bsen
delegated to look again for the long lost
strait. The expedition will excite keen in
terest among the geographers and his
1 nf mil
entertain the world generally. Candidly.
| il cannot be said that the three Commis-
sioners start out with much confidence in
the practical Importance of their search.
| Nowadays, when geo,ogsts and geogra-
pliers speak of the secret of the strait
it is well understood among them they do
not think water connection still exists be-
| tween the Atlantic and the Pacific. That
the time was when the two continents
were apart, these scientific people believe.
The layman glancing down the map finds
no difficulty in accepting the theory that
at some time North America and South
America were separated. Physical condi-
tions make it entirely plausible. The
isthmus narrows at one point, between the
Gulf of San Bias on the Caribbean and
the mouth of the Bavano on the Pacific 10
only thirty miles, the distance an average
passenger train travels in an hour. At
another place on the isthmus, in Mica
ragua this backbone of the hemisphere
stretching from Alaska to Patagonia, is
only 14S feet above the sea level no more
than an ordinary hill.
But it is not where the isthmus is low
est or where it is narrowest that the ira
dition of Indians and the circumstantial
testimony of scientific explorers point to
the location of the lost strait. In fact, the
place where once the waters of the two
oceans mingled and where ferriage was
necessary to pass from North to South
America was not on the isthmus as now
existing. 1t is not definitely located, but
Indefinitely it is believed to have been con-
siderably south of the isthmus, as the
geographers of today know it.
On almost any map of South America OF
detail will be found river heading well up
in the Interior called the Atrato. 1t has
it's origin in the Andes, and flows almost
due north, bearing little to the east. II
discharges into the Caribbean Sea. The
lower Atrato worms slnggishly through a
great delta, the increase of which is still
going on. Scientific men can see that not
SO very long ago these delta lands were
covered by an arm of the sea, which
reached southwark into South America
Or, it may be said that the isthmus in the
centuries passed was much longer to tbs
southwark than it is now. The Caribbean
has been filled in and the Atrato has beer
heightened by the sediment brought dowr
in the floods. Ascending the Atrato. ex-
plorers come to successive streams empty
ing into it from the western side. These
streams have their rise in a mountain
chain which forms very narrow barrier
between them and the Pacific. Through
this barrier tradition has it that strai
from ocean to ocean once was. And The
Indians living there today believe that tn;
/, strait existed in the days of their fore
!, fathers.
Some idea of the magnitude of the delt;
which the sediment OF the Atrato has bull
may be formed from the fact that 1t is
distance of 140 miles from the mouth O
the river to where one of the prineipa
branches flowing from the west joins 1t
This branch is the Napipi. Three member
of the new Isthmian Canal Commission
will go to this locality and look for 9Th
secret of the strait They will explor
the region for the purpose of telling Con
gress whether canal route better thai
Nicaragua or Panama can be located
| = Thu