Arizona republican., 1904-01-20

turbance would pretty surely close
 The strong trade winds rush through
 the San Juan gorge the year round
 For nearly fifty miles the river twists
 and curves very objectionably. It has
 awkward currents and eddies. The rainfall near the Atlantic coast is the heaviest anywhere in the Americas.
 How far ahead can you see in tor rental downpour of rain? The safe ty of ship-eanal navigation is largely
 dependent on clear vision, especially by night" says General Abbott. Tt may
 well be doubted whether any system
 of artificial lighting could render night
 transit safe for large ships, and with
 out it delays and possibly congestion could hardly be avoided An expend
 iture of nearly sS,O0O,OOO Con dredg-
 lng) would be necessary to get Lake
 Nicaragua into shape; even then there
 would still be risk of trouble from
 strong winds, big waves and low wa
 ter. The region from Greytown to
 San Juan is. practically, u continuous
 swamp. and Greytowns harbor of a
 half-century ago is now a most dis
 it practicable for large ships ap-
 preaching the Atlantic entrance to
 the canal would have meant "a never
 ending battle with the forces of na- ,ture."
 According to General Abbott. there
 are no technical difficulties in sight
 in the Panama route that will not
 yield to the ordinary resources of modern engineering. The five locks
 needed will entail no serious difficult
 ties in navigation. The excessive
 mortality that attended the disturb ance of the surface soil by the de Les seps excavators is now q thing of the past, and what we have done for san- itary conditions at Havana we can do on the isthmus. Colon is more remote from our Atlantic and gulf ports than Greytown, but the time lost on the longer sea route will be fully compen- sated by the gain in time required to traverse the canal, to say nothing of the saving in cost due to lower in surance rates, which will probably be only about onefourth as much as by Nicaragua" With regard to other matters. the general says:
 Tn the important element of natural hartors the Panama) route has met all the requirements of commerce dur covery. On the Pacific, when the can al reaches deep water. no works of harbor improvement will ever be re- quired. On the Atlantic the natural depth now meets the needs of ordin- ary commercial steamers, and when more is required it may be secured by dredging, without fear of deteriora- ton, since there are no moving sands 1 10 be combated. The merits of the | inland route are equally conspicuous | The distance is only about forty-five | miles from ocean to ocean, or only | as long as that by Mica ragua, and the summit level may be | fixed at about siXty-five feet, or a liz i tie more than half that of Nicaragua. | The route is swept by no strong | winds; the curvature is exceptionally | favorable as compared with existing ship canals: the annual rainfall rang es from about 14O inches on the At antic coast to about ninety three {, Inches in the interior and about sixty inches near the shores of the Pacific, with well defined dry sea- son of fully three months; and with udicious regulation Of the Chagres river there will never be objection able currents in any part of the route The transit from ocean to ocean may De made in a single day without en- upon the night, but night passage may be made easy and safe 'y system of electric lighting sup oiled by water power at the two dams 'n the Chagres."
 General Morgan, who tells us that he Nicaragua route is the only one hat should be even thought of for a anal, is an aged and in many ways Admirable senator, very "sot" in his opinions. General Abbott, who tells IS that we should be hugging our ielves over our deliverance from the Nicaragua route. is an eminent grad tate of West Point, q retired colonel If the engineer corps, a recognized on engineering problems, md an expert in canals