BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-03-12
The Inter Oceanic Canal of Nicaragua ,

catedral of Leon as shaving for more than a
century and q hail.. stood the vicissitu.
des Of earthquake, weather, war, piracy, re-
volution, and its walls are still solid and
unshsken", and define the risk of injury to
Nicaragua canal constructions by earthqua-
xes as existing only in the theories of
those who are interested in the making
canal at some other locality, or ID the mind
of the man who is naturally a pessimist and /
opposed to all bold undertakings". This
vainglorying was, however, rebuked in less
than decade, for on April 90, 1898, q vio-
lent earthquake, which agitated the whole of !
Nicaragua, and had its greatest intensity in |
the plain OF Leon, destroyed as we are in.
formed in the report of the Government |
Technical Commission OF Nicaragua $40
houses in the city of Leon, besides inficting
considerable damage elsewhere. Even the |
stgrand oldD cathedral had its walls and Gu |
polas rent soith cracks.
! In its present final report, the Isthmian
Canal Commission finds it necessary tc
enter into briet discussion of this sub.
lject, which, indeed, might be considered
to be rather an apology for discussion
than a discussion itself. Little sympathy
can be had for q report which dismisses
this all important topic in hardly more
than three pages, and uses as its main
argumentative text Humboldts !'OOsmos,n y
the first American edition of LyelPs sPrin.
ciples of Geology the second edition OF
Daubeny's Volcanoes and the tragmentary
land confessedly incomplete) lists on earth
quakes prepared by Montessus de Ballore.
The sciences of volcsnology and seismology
have made such rapid advances during the
last quarter of a century that one wonders
how reference can be raade to these works
for "authority"; nor is it more Ineligible
how Humboldfs earliest conception of the
relation of the mountain systems Of the
two continents, which Humboldt himself
quite gave up upwards of forty years ago,
can be taken as the modern guide in the
study of the region in question. We are
told that glance at the map appended TO
the report will show sthat the entire 18th.
mus between North and South America is
a volcanic region" and, following Hum.
boldt, that ''the grsnGeSt example OF q
continental volcanic fchain' is offered by
the great rampant of the Andes extending
from the southern part of Chill to the
northwest of America" Up. 1851. II has,
however, been known for full quarter Of
q century that the main Andes do I" not
traverse the Isthmus Of Panama, and that
there are no active or recently decayed
volcanoes in any part of the true Isthmus.
So far, therefore, as danger from direct
volcanic contacts is concerned, the Panama
route is exempt. The case is very different
with the Nicaragua route, whose line is laid
across the almost in q continuously volcanic
tract that binds Costa Rica with Salvador,
aud which has been during the period Of
the last three quarters of century prob
ably the most violently eTuptive of any in
the Western Hemisphere. On the line of
Icrustal weakness that is occupied by Lakes
Nicaragua and Mansgus there are distrib.
uted over q linear distance of little more
than 200 miles not less than % volcanoes,
most of s0hich have been active within a
very modern period of time, while a pun
Der are still active to day. A few actually
lie within the basin OF Lake Nicaragua it
self. Ooseguina, which lies only sixty miles
distant from the line of the initially pro-
posed canal, went through paroTysm In
1885 which has been described by the
geologist of the Nicaragua Canal Commits
sion as ''the most violent recorded eruption
until surpassed by that Of Krakatoa in 1888 y
Yet, in the face of these facts, known to
all geograpbers and geologists, the 18th
/
believe that SO far as danger from this
source is concerned the two routes stand
equal!
1t is not little surprising that the only |
source Of danger that the Commiss on as
sociates soith volcanic manifestations is |
that dependent upon the secondary phe.
nomena of earthquakes. Toe individual |
volcanic catastrophe, as such, does not en-
ter for consideration and Jet it is only
fifteen years ago 1885 that the great
lake Of Rotomahans, in New Zsaland, was
wrecked and emptied of its water tkrougki
the eruption of q volcano TsrawersI
thought to have been extinct for upwards
Of hundred years And only q few years
earlier, 1879 80, the sater Of Lske Ilopango,
in Salvador, had been lowered 50 feet as
the result Of an eruption in that body of
water. The physiogrsphic conditions Of
Rotomahana previous to 1886 could have
been precisely paralleled With those now
existing about the lake region of Nicaragua. !