The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-09-07

Another expedition Is going I'm quest OF
the secret OF the strait" For zoo years.
says the Clobe-Dcmocrat. the secret has
remained unsolved. The last voyage OF
Columbus was In search OF this strait. :"
The c:scoverer believed he would and
somewhere through Central America a
passage by which he could sail TO the Pa
cihc and on 10 the Indies. In 1900. with his
humble caravels. he tried every entrance
along the Caribbean side OF tho isthmus
only to turn back disappointed. Column
bus found tradition but not n strait.
The Indians told Of time handed down
through unnumbcred generations Of an
cestors when canoes were padded from
ocean To ocean. but none of them to guide
to the route.
After Columbus came other navi9ators
who sailed up and down the isthmus.
seeking for what they were at last reiuc-
family compelled to admit did not exlst--a
water connection between the Atlantic
and Pacific. IT was a search as battling
as these for the golden fleece, the holy
grail and the north pole. Still later came
explorers who. accepting the conclusion
that no strait was there. sought to locate
II as II once was. that they might restore
the passage which nature had closed
Modern science turned its powerful
scarchlEhts on the problem which had
dehed Columbus. 1.-THE secret Of the
strait" Is stiil a secret Engineers have
lost themselves In the Cordilleras locking
for the place where waters from the two
oceans may have mingled before some
convulsion raised the barrier and com
plcsed the isthmian connection between
the two continents. And now one section
OF the new isthminn canal commission has
been delegated to look again for the long
lost strait The expedition will excite
keen interest among the geographers and
historians. Results Of the exploration will
entertain the world generally. Candidly,
II cannot be said that the three commits
sioners start out with much confidence In
the practical Importance OF their search,
Nowadays. when biologists and gcogra-
piers speak OF 1.-The secret OF the strait"
IL In well understood among them they do
not think water connection still exists be-
tween the Atlantic and tho Pacific. That
the time was when the two continents
were apart, those 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 cond!-
lions make 1t entirely plausible. The 18TH
mus narrows AT one point. between the
Gulf OF San Bias on the Caribbean and
the mouth OF the Bavano on the Pacific
TO only thirty miles. the distance an aver
age passenger train travels n an hour. Al
another place on tho isthmus. In Nicaragua.
this backbone OF the hemisphere II only
1<s feet above the sea level no more than
an ordinary hill.
But Il r. not where the isthmus is lowest
or where Il Il narrowest that the tradi-
ton OF Indians and the c.rcumstantial tcs-
tlmony OF scientific explorers point to ne
location OF the lost strait. In fact. the
place where once the waters OF the two
oceans mingled and where ferrage waa
necessary 10 pass from North To South
America was not on the isthmus now ext
sting II - not definitely located. but In
definitely IL Is believed 10 have been con-
siierably south Of the !sthmus. as the geog
raphers OF today know H.
On almost any map OF South America Of
detail will he found n river heading well
up IN the interior. called the A,rato. II
discharges into the Caribbean sea The
lower Asrato worms sluggishiy through \
great delta. the increase OF which is stIl
going on. Scientific men can see that no:
az very long ago these delta lands were
covered by an arm OF the sea which reach
ed southwark INTO South America. Or. Z
may be said that the isthmus In the cen
turtles passed was much longer 10 TIE
southwark than Is now The Caribbean
has heen tlled In and the Atrato has been
heightened by the sediment brought down
in the foods. Ascending the Atrato. cx-
piorers como 10 successive streams empty
ing Into Z from the western side. These
streams have their rise In a mountain chain
which forms very narrow barrier be-
tween them and the racifc. through this
barrier tradition has q that strait from
ocean 10 ocean once was. And the Indians
living here today believe that the s.rait
existed I'm the davs Of their forefathers
Some Idea az tire magnitude Of the delta
which tSe sediment q the Atrato has hp!lt
May he Termed from the fact that & -
distance az In miles from the mouth OF
Tho river 20 where ono ~ the principal
branches flowing from the west joins q
This branch ts the Nan,p Three mem
bars Of the rev tsthmisn canal commits
sion wifi 60 20 th's locality and look FOL
''iAv secret ~ the strait" They will cx-
piore the RECON fer the purpose ~ telling
congress whether canal route better
than Nicaragua or Panama can &C lecat-
- Chicago Inter Ocean