THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 385.09 F76I Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. y j Library Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https ;//archive.org/details/foreignrailroadsOOunse HAILH^^ADS A colljiction of 43 Arti^^iles relating to Operation, '^^ationali'/ation, Accidents, Taxation, etc., in England, France, Belgium, f^pain, the Hear Fast, South Anier*ica, and the IstlmTs of Panama Taken from the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Chaiitauquan, Empire Hevievv, Fortni^itly Review, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Merchants Magazine, Ou.tlook,SoGie ty of Engineers Transactions, United Service Institution Journal, and 7 / 0 r Id’s V/ork, C L F V E L A U r 1 9 1 S 0'3 F7^/ C 6 T TC T S Accidents on Railways in Fngland Bagdad Railway ^ British Railv;ay Statistics Bnrgess (R.) Rlilitary Roads of the Ancient Roibans, con.’pared with Modern British Rai Iways Conley (Edward M.) Nev/ Isthmian Railroad Cuban Railroad Oillen - Panama Railroad Cullen - Xsthnius of Bari an and the Ship. Cs.nal Daniel (A.E.) Underground Railway in London Development of West Africa by Railways Die tier (Hans) Regulation and Uaticnalisation of the Swiss Railways I Die tier (Hans) Regulation and UationaiiZration of the Swiss Railways II Hrench Railroads History of the English Railways 1 tr Fowell (Price) Compare Statistics of tralian Kai Iways Iffiperial Mexican Railway India Railroads and the Cotton Trade Monnt Cenis Sur.'ir.it Railway O'Connor (T.A.) .Bagdad Railv^ay Pepper^ (Charles M.) Pan-American Railway » Progress of Fnglish Railways Proposed Railroad ^Across the Isthmus of Panairia Prouty (Charles A,) Railvv^ay Discriminations and Industrial Comhinations Railroad and Canal Statistics: Heading Railrorid Erie Canal and Western Railroad: Comparative Cost of Railroads Railroad and their Future Railroads and Canals of Few York Railroads in India Railroads in Texas Railroad, Virginia and Tennessee Railroads, Indiari Railroads in the United States Railroad Statistics: France, Engl'and, Paris and London Railroad Taxation in Fngland o w t ■Railroad Travel, Increase of ■Rp.ilwp.ys in Spain.- Pyrenees .to be Tunnelled /* Railways of France ■Railways of Italy Redaction of Fares on English Railways [follows Acciaents on Railways] Rost (E.C.) Highest of i^ll Railroads Talbot (Frederick A.) Railways’ Fight for Tr^is- tence Troy and Crreenbush Railroad [follov/s Radnction of Fares] Victoria Railways "Bridge at Montreal PS ' . 1 : !; •7 o • I Railroad and Steamboat Statistics. 97 RAILROAD AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS IN ENGLAND. The usujil annual report from the Railway Department of the Board of Trade has just been presented to Parliament for the years 1844 and 1845 ; from which it appears that in 1844 ten persons were killed, four of whom were passengers, and one hundred and one, eighty-two of whom were passengers, injured in a greater or less degree, the causes of the accident being beyond the control of passengers ; that nine passengers were killed, and ten injured, owing to their own neglect or ill conduct; that thirty-six servants of the companies were killed, and twenty-four injured, under circumstances not attended with danger to other portions of the public ; and that forty-five persons other than servants of the companies were killed, and nine injured, under circumstances not involving danger to passengers. The report says that the actual number of accidents in the years 1844 and 1845 are greater than they were in previous years ; but the real danger arising from rail- way travelling can only be appreciated when the number of accidents shall be considered in connection with the additional amount of miles of new railway which have been open- ed, and the enormous augmentation of railway travellers. For this purpose, the follow- ing table has been made. It includes the years 1841, ’42, ’43, ’44, and the first half of ’45. The last half of ’45 is not included, in consequence of the statistical returns for that period not having yet been received from the railway companies by the Board of Trade. The table is entitled — “ Statement of the number of ‘ accidents attended with personal injury or danger to the public, arising from causes beyond the control of passen- gers,’ distinguishing the number of persons killed and injured in the last five months of the year 1840 ; in each year, from 1841 to 1844, and in the first six months of the year 1845 ; showing also the number of miles of railway open, the number of passengers con- veyed, and the proportion of those injured to the total number carried in each of the above periods.” Years. No. of acci- dents. NO. PI Kill’d. :rsons II Inj’rd, not fa- tally. JJURED. Total. No. miles of railway open. Total No. of passengers carried. Prop, of persons injured to the total number of passengers car- ried. Last 5 mo. of 1840, 28 22 131 153 l,330i 6,029,866 1 in 39,410 “ 1841, 29 24 72 96 l,556i 20,449,754 1 213,018 “ 1842, 10 5 14 19 l,717i 21,358,445 1 1,124,128 “ 1843, 5 3 3 6 l,798i 25,572,525 1 4,262,087 “ 1844, 34 10 74 84 1,912| 30,363,052 1 356,702 1st 6 mo. of 1845, 15 2 30 32 2,118i 16,720,550 1 522,517 RECEIPTS OF ENGLISH RAILWAYS. The London Economist furnishes the following table, showing by the amounts received the increase which has taken place in railway travelling, and in the transport of goods by railway, during the three years preceding June 30th, 1845 : Yr. ending June 30, Miles open. 1843, l,798i 1844, 1,912| 1845, 2,118i Rec. from pass. Rec. fm. goods, etc. ^13, 11 0,257 £1,424,932 3,439,294 1,635,380 3,976,341 2,333,373 Total. £4,535,189 5,074,674 6,209,714 The increase of traffic thus shown, is still progressing ; a fact in favor of the system of low fares, which is becoming quite popular in England. VOL. XV. NO. I. 7 98 Railroad and Steamhoat Slaiififirs. REDUCTION OF FARES ON ENGLISH RAILWAYS. It appears from tho last annual report from the Railway Department of the Rrilisf/ Board of Trade, that on the Grand .Tunction Line, 98 miles long, the fares have been reduced, since the 1st of January, 1844, on the first-class, from 24 h. fid. to 17 h. ; and on the second, from 18s. to 14s. On the Great North of England, 4.9 miles long, fir.st-ela."‘', from 13s. to 93. ; and on the second, from 9s. to 8s. On the Great Western, 1 miles long, first-class, from 30s. to 27s. Gd. ; second, from 21s. to I8s. Gd. On the Leeds and Selby, G miles long, first-class, from 2s. to Is. 4d. ; second, froip Is. Gd. to la. On the London and Birmingham, 112^ miles long, finst-class, from 30s. to 2.33.; second, from 20s. to 17s. On the London and Brighton, 50 miles long, first-cla.ss, from 12s. to lO.s. ; second, from 8s. to 7s. Gd. On tho London and Croydon, 10^ miles long, first-class, from 2s. 3d. to Is. 3d.; second, from Is. 9d. to Is. On the Southwestern, 94 miles long, first- class, from 23s. 6d. to 19s. Gd., and added a second-class at ISs. On the Maiiehestcr and Birmingham, 85 miles long, first-class, from 23s. to L'js. ; second, from 178. to 11s. Gd. On the Manchester and Leeds, 51 miles long, first-class, from 15s. to lls. ; second, from 9s. 6d. to 8s. Gd. On the Newcastle and Carlisle, GO miles long, first-class, from IGs. to 12s. ; second, 12s. to 9s. On the North Union, 22 miles long, first-class, from 8s. Gd. to 4s. 6d. ; second, from 4s. to 3s. On the Southeastern, 88 miles long, first-class, from ISs, 6d. to 15s.; second, from 12s. to 10s. On the York and North Midland, 24 miles long, first-class, from 7s. to Gs.; second, from 5s. to 43. Gd. In addition to these reductions, great facilities and reductions have been afforded by third-class carriages and return tickets, of which no note is taken. Since the close of the year, further reductions have taken place on some of the lines, which, of course, are not included in this report. On the following lines, no reductions have been made : — Birmingham and Gloucester, Hull and Selby, Lancaster and Preston, Midland, and Preston and Wyre. The total length of new railways opened in 1844 was 195 miles 45^ chains ; and in 1845, 293 miles 77 chains. TROY AND GREENBUSH RAILROAD. This road, which was partially opened for travel on the 13th of June, 1845, extends from the city of Troy to Greenbush, opposite Albany, and is six miles long. It appears, by the last annual report of the directors, made to the Assembly of New York, that the cost of construction to January 1st, 1846, was ^233,371 39. The receipts of the com- pany from June 13th, 1845, when, it will be remembered, the road was only partially opened, to the first of January, 1846, was from 98,711 passengers, ^12,200 86, and from freight, ^3,647 32; making a total of ^15,846 18. The expenses for the same period were ^5,981 21 ; and the dividends made to stockholders, ^7,843 62. The number of miles run by passenger trains was 13,636 ; for freight do., 500 miles. The company have three locomotives, and two Troy-built cars, handsomely furnished, and as commodious and convenient as any we have ever seen. The company have judiciously adopted the lowest rate of fare, (12^ cents) two cents per mile. There are no roads in the United States more efficiently managed, or better conducted than the Troy. The “ Rensselaer and Saratoga,” the “ Schenectady and Troy,” and the “ Troy and Green- bush” railroads, all pass through the main street of the city, and take up passengers at the door of each of the principal hotels, the “ Mansion House,” the “ Troy House,” etc. ; and although owned by different companies, they are all under the management of Mr. L. IL Sargent, a most experienced, intelligent, and efficient superintendent ; a cir- cumstance which secures the utmost regularity as w'ell as safety. The travel over the Troy and Greenbush road since the last report has been constantly increasing, and we have no hesitation in saying that the stock must soon take rank with the best in the coun- try. 'I'lic first semi-annual dividend was 4 per cent on the capital invested. The cars leave Troy and Greenbush every hour during tho day and evening. Foreign Affairs 79 memorial to Queen Victoria has given great satisfaction in both countries. It will be the first State visit after the period of mourning, and this early meeting between the two monarchs augurs well for a new era in the relations of this country and Germany. For some time past it has been patent that if the peace of the world is to be maintained, the people of Great Britain and the people of Germany must be close friends. This knowledge is at last coming home to both nationalities, and there are on all sides indications of a desire tp heal the breach and to shake hands and be friends. This was th& earnest wish of King Edward and this is the earnest wish of King George. It only remains for politicians to heal their differences and for common sense to prevail. THE BAGHDAD RAILWAY One of the most welcome signs of a more friendly feeling between Great Britain and Germany is shown in the change of attitude adopted by the British Press towards the Baghdad Eailway. When the undertaking was first mooted and this country was invited to join with Germany and the other great Powers in constructing the line, the Press of this country actively opposed the proposition. The Government of the day had accepted it in principle, but the party organs. Conservative and Kadical, made common cause against the idea, and so Lord Lansdowne was compelled to abandon the position he had taken up, although he and his colleagues were not one whit less eager to see the line made an international line than are the present administration. Sir Edward Grey would have us believe that, now as then, it is only a matter of agreement as to conditions. With all deference to his opinion, I think the situation to-day is very different to what it was a few years ago. Then we had to meet the organised opposition of the Press. To-day there is no such compelling influence at work. Instead of pressure being brought to bear on the Foreign Minister to withdraw, public opinion has veered round, and although conditions are still all- important they do not occupy that overwhelming position before which no government could stand. In my article last month I made the suggestion that we should lose no time in opening negotiations with the Turkish government as to the Gulf section, and more especially as to that part of it which is to connect Basra with Koweit. My article was, of course, in type before the month closed. On February 9 the Ti^nes correspondent at Constantinople telegraphs : Rifaat Pasha, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has intimated to the British Ambassador that the Porte is desirous of opening pourparlers with the British 80 The Empire Review Government in regard to the questions connected with the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia. Official circles express the hope that diplomatic conversations will begin in a few days’ time. In the meantime the representatives of the Baghdad Bailway Company are discussing the prolongation of the railway beyond El lielif with the Minister of Finance. I understand that the rumour that the German Government has officially approached the Porte in regard to proposals for the settlement of the question of the construction of the Gulf sections of the railway is premature. With regard to the reference to Germany, this again corre- sponds with the suggestion put forward by me to the effect that Germany and Turkey should also consult together. But my purpose is not so much to emphasise my own anticipations as to draw attention to the common-sense attitude of the Times towards what I venture to regard as a most important civilising influence in the Middle East. On the day following the receipt of the above telegram the Times offers the following editorial contribution to the solution of the difficulty : The information which we published yesterday from our Constantinople correspondent, that the Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs has intimated to the British ambassador the desire of the Porte to initiate an exchange of views with the British Government in regard to questions connected with Mesopo- tamia and the Persian Gulf, though not yet officially confirmed, is, we trust, of good omen. If those questions can be settled, as we are firmly convinced they can be, in conformity with the important interests of Great Britain in those regions and with the dignity of the Ottoman Empire, many of the difficulties — perhaps the chief ones — which an arrangement with regard to the Baghdad Bailway presents for this country will be considerably mitigated, if not wholly removed. At any rate, if by agreement with Turkey we can uphold our legitimate influence in the Gulf and in Mesopotamia, the political aspects of the Baghdad Bailway question will be materially simplified, and it is those aspects which must be the chief matter of concern to British statesmanship. That is and always has been my case. What we have to do is to secure our legitimate influence in the Gulf and in Mesopotamia. And the only way to obtain this end is by coming to some agree- ment with Turkey and with Germany. For the exact same purpose as we did Eussia also stood aloof, but the Potsdam con- versations brought about a complete change of face on the part of Eussia, and once that happened Great Britain and France, if not anxious, were at any rate far from unwilling to reconsider their positions. Eussia, France and this country are now beginning to see that nothing they can do can prevent the line being built as far as Basra, and this being so obviously no one of these Powers desires to shut itself out from any benefits that may accrue from the undertaking. This country, too, has the all-important purpose in view of keeping control of the territory between Basra and Koweit, and that cannot be done, or at least such control may bo jeopardised, by not taking time by the fore- Foreign Affairs 81 lock and coming to a satisfactory conclusion with Turkey and Eussia over this last section of the Baghdad Eailway. France, it may be taken for granted, will follow Kussia’s lead. In the course of an interesting article on the railway in the Journal des Dehats, a contradiction is given to the statement that the attempts on the part of German and French parties to secure the quotation of the railway bonds in Paris failed because the French Government was hostile to the scheme. “ They failed because the Eussian Government, which was at that time ill-inspired and short-sighted, believed that it was in the interest of Eussia to create as many difficulties as possible for an enterprise which it judged to be perilous for itself. Eussia refused to recognise that, once the concession had been granted, the construction of the line was inevitable, and that it was infinitely preferable both for her and for France to secure the participation of French capital on a considerable scale, together with a corresponding share in the control and management of the line. She is now paying the price of this error. Since that date the situation has changed entirely to the advantage of the Baghdad Eailway Company.”^ This explanation affords a curious sidelight on the whole proceedings, and indicates the mistake made by Great Britain, France and Eussia. In the circumstances it can hardly be expected that Germany and the German syndicate which has financed the line will accept the same terms as they were ready to do before a sod was turned. All the money required for the first two sections is subscribed, and it only remains to finance the third section. It is no longer any use Great Britain trying to secure the control of the whole of that section. What we must do is to obtain a financial interest in the line and to obtain the greatest interest we can get, but above and beyond all we must ourselves build a line joining Basra with Koweit. That must be an all-British undertaking, and to secure this privilege we must be prepared to give concessions to Turkey and Germany. But we have no time to lose. The longer we delay in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion the more concessions we shall have to make. The railway has got to come and is coming to Basra. For this purpose Germany has secured the concession and the territory is Turkish territory. Nothing France, Eussia or Great Britain can do can prevent the railway being built. The only pity is that common sense has taken so long to prevail. * See Times, February 10. VoL. XXI.— No. 122. H 82 The Empire Review GERMAN NAVY ESTIMATES The German Navy Estimates have gone through without more opposition, a fact I venture to commend to politicians at Westminster. In the course of his observations, liowever, Admiral von Tirpitz again referred to Mr. McKenna’s statement concerning acceleration which caused so much unrest in this country two years ago. “It is quite an astonishing mistake in England,” said the Admiral, “that we have accelerated the construction of our navy outside the provision of the Navy Law. That would only have been possible if the Eeichstag had voted us the money for the purpose. In point of fact we have not bad a penny for the purpose, and so we have been strangely affected by this assertion that has cropped up in England. There has been no lack on our side of explanation.” In view of this pronouncement it seems hardly creditable that a Liberal Minister should have made the remarks he did, and one can only hope that he will take an early opportunity of offering some explanation as to how he was led into committing so unfortunate a mistake. After all it is not expected that the First Lord of the Admiralty should deliberately make an assertion which has to be officially contradicted by a foreign Power. This is not the way to carry on the naval business of the country. As I have always said our business is to set our own house in order, and not to try and set other people’s houses in order. It is an open secret that the Government during the first three years of office since 1905 cut down the naval estimates to such a low ebb that the country would have been in danger had it been attacked. Then to try and get the rank and file of his party to follow him into the lobby and vote his increased estimates the First Lord set about creatinor t? a naval scare which alarmed the whole Empire and involved an accusation against Germany which, it is clear from the statement made by the German naval minister, had no foundation in fact. It is unfortunate that such a mistake should have occurred, and it would be well if Mr. McKenna were to make some explanation from his seat in Parliament. We cannot afford to offend foreign and friendly powers by making statements calculated to offend if these statements cannot be substantiated. I am all for a strong navy, and the stronger the better, and I have sufficient belief even in the Kadicals that if facts and not fiction arc placed before them they will more readily appreciate the position. Edwakd Dicey. Railroad Statistics, 569 The execution of these contracts with the companies will, moreover, require on the part of the state an outlay of about 800,000,000 francs, equal to ^150,000,000; or, ad- ding the two sums together, we have 1,255,000,000 of francs ; or, in our currency, ^235,312,500. BRITISH RAILWAY STATISTICS. At a recent meeting of the liondon Statistical Society, Mr. Porter, the Treasurer of the society, read “ an examination of tlie returns made by the various railway compardes of the United Kingdmm, wdtli respect to their traffic, during the year ending .30th June, ] 842.” From Mr. Porter’s paper, which is of high statistical value, we gather the follow- ing particulars : — The returns for 1813, of 53 lines of railway, of which 41 are in England and Wales, 10 in Scotland, and 2 in Ireland, demonstrate that there were conveyed of passengers of the first clan«, 4,223,249 ; of the second class, 10,968,001 ; of the third class, 6,429,225 ; and that, with reference to the divisions of the kingdom, the proportions were, for Eng- land and AVales, of passengers of the first class, 3,882,171 ; of the second class, 8,951,070; of the third class, 4,060,321. For Scotland, of the first class, 245,757; of the second class, 877,055 ; of the third class, 1,529,717. For Ireland, of the first class, 95,321 ; of the second class, 1,139,936; of the third class, 839,157. The money recenved from the whole, was 3,063,032/. ; and the average charge to each passenger in England and Wrdes, of the first class, wms 82d. ; of the second class, 31^4. ; of the third class, 19^4. In Scot- land, of the first class, 40-^4.; of the second class, 16^1.; of the third class, 9^d. In Ireland, of the first class, lO^d. ; of the second class, 7d. ; of the third class, 5^d. The great difference that exists between the average fares paid in England, Scotland, and Ire- land, is occasioned by the greater length of the English lines of railw'ay beyond those of Scotland and Ireland, and the greater length of the Scottish lines beyond those of Ireland. In the short period between 1833 and 1841, Mr. Porter states the amount of railway tra- velling throughout the kingdom to have been quadrupled. The amount of receipts from 63 railroads, for 1843, for the conveyance of carriages, horses, cattle, minerals, and gene- ral merchandise, was, in England and Wales, 1,303,291/.; in Scotland, 104,839/.; in Ire- land, 6,832/. The average cost per mile cf the various railways in England, has been 31,522/. ; in Scotland, 22,165/. ; a.rd in Ireland, 22,187/. Mr. Porter concluded his paper by drawi.ig a comparison of the working of English railways w ith those of Belgium, tlie only country in Europe., besides England, in which such works have hitherto been carried on as a system, and where the results have been published. At the end of 1842, there were i-i operation in that kingdom 282 miles of railway, the average cost of constructing which wa.3 17,120/. per mile, about half the cost in the United Kingdom. This difference results fi-om a variety of causes. la the first place, the works being undertaken by tlie government, there were no expen.sive parliamentary contests ; no opposing interests to be bought oiT; no unreasonable compensations to be paid for land ; and, from the nature cf the country, there were comparatively few engineering difficulties to be overcome. Be- sides these circumstances, there has been much present saving effected in the manner of executing -the works, which have been performed in a less perfect manner than would satisfy the magnificent ideas of an English engineer. The number of passengers convey- ed along the various lines in Belgium, in 1642, was 2,724,104, there being in Belgium of the first class, 9 per cent ; of the second class, 25 per cent ; of the third class, 66 per cent; whereas, in the United Kingdom, the per centage was, for the first class, 19 ; the second class, 51 ; the third class, 30. The receipts for passengers were, in Belgium, Is. 4^ 1. for a distance of 19 males, egainst 23. 2Jd. in the United Kingdom, for a distance of 13^ miles. VOL. XI. — NO. VI. 43 570 Nautical Inlrlligcnrc. NAUTICAL INTELLICENCE. LOSS OF VESSELS ON THE BAHAMA BANKS. Collector’s Ofi ick, Port of Berth Amboy. To the Editor of the Mrvchariis' Magazine : — The recent losses of vessels and lives, on and near the Ihiharna hanks, have awakened imich sympathy in every breast, and produced as inueh wonder at the aj)athy of the com- mercial world in regard to these events. It is well known that nearly all vessels hound for ports in the West Indies and the (xulf of Mexico, avoid as much as possible the gulf stream, between the latitudes of 25 and 55 deg. N., and that those bound westward of HO deg. W. longitude, make the “ Hole in the Wall,” on Abaco, and them have, in thick and stormy weather, a ticklish and anxious navigation, until they get ()I1’ the Jiahama bank, and ascertain their relative situation, when steering westward through the gulf stream, coursing between Cuba and the Florida Keys. The dangers commence after leaving the light at the “ Hole in the Wall.” The currents between the south end of Abaco and the Berry islands, are strong and diverse. On the Berry islands, which have so often proved the fatal end of many a voyage, there is no light. From them, when seen, the navigator takes his departure for his course over the Bahama bank. If wind and weather favors, all is well — for the lead, that faithful friend to the sailor, can easily guide the course ; but the danger, and a great one it is, is in missing the course, and touching on the Orange Keys. My recommendation to merchants would be, induce the government to unite with England, and other governments most concerned in the naviga- tion of those seas, to place a good light on the northern Berry island. Put a light-ship, well furnished with fog-bell, and other usual appurtenances, midway the channel from the Berry isles to the Orange Keys, in three fathoms water, in about lat. 25 deg. 20 min., and then a beacon, with light, on the Orange Keys. With such a range tf lights and precau- tions, the navigator could cheerfully run his vessel, and merchants and insurers have bet- ter hope of safety. I have often wondered, when anxiously going over the track above alluded to, how it could be that the merchants of our country could be so easily induced to trust their vessels, and the lives of their friends, over a navigation so beset with dan- gers, and yet make no effort to point out to the notice of the government the necessity of some appropriation to meet the case. Vessels and property, it is true, may be insured, and the loss made up ; but no insurance can recover back life, experience, and energy ; and to this positive loss, insurers should direct their thoughts. A government Icses much, indeed, when, by shipwreck, the veteran seaman — the enterprising youth — the man of business, and the fond family, are hurried together to eternity. The late gales in the West Indies have done vast damage ; but the damage sustained by loss of life in naviga- ting a critical, yet neglected course, is a reproach on owners, insurers, and goAT-rnment. Awaken the attention of our mercantile community to this subject ; and, ere Congress shall convene, something may be done to forward public energy on this important matter. Our growing southern trade demands prompt attention. Y ours, in the cause of humanity. “ An Old Salt.” SUNKEN ROCK NEAR THE ISLAND OF ROCKAL. Mr. Bartlett, of the brig Guide, of Hull, arrived in the river, from Montreal, reports that off the small island of Rockal, lat. 57. 39. N., long. 13. 31. W., there is a clump of hidden rocks, about 80 or 90 feet in length, and 30 feet in breadth ; the main rock, on Rockal, bearing from the outer one W. by N. by compass, distance 8 miles. “ On the 15th April, 1844, at 4 A. M., sighted Rockal, bearing N. W., ship lying N. W. by W., strong gales from the S. W. by W., clear weather. Was desirous to keep my reach to the N. W. Not being able to wcaljicr Rockal, bore away to round the north end — had my mate aloft, and myself on deck, to look for lueakers. Suddenly I found the vessel be- tween the outer rock and the main one, at least eight miles distant. With difficulty I cleared, by hauling the ship suddenly on the starboard tack, being not more than one sea from the ])roken water — breaks occasionally. They arc bad to discern aloft, but their lo- cality may be seen much more readily off deck, by the color of the water. The morning being clear, was able to obtain the bearing and distance pretty correctly.” THE OF THE LECTURES. June 1857. Colonel the Honourable JAMES LINDSAY in tlie Chaii'i OH TDK. MILITAJ^y ROADSIDE THE ANCIENT ROMANS, COMPARED WITH MODERN BRITISH RAILWAYS. By the Rev. R. Burgess, B.D. I PURPOSE in this lecture to enumerate and describe those great works of the ancient Romans, with a view of comparing their mag- nitude with the cast iron lines that now traverse a single province of the old Roman dominions. Unpromising as this subject may seem, it has already occupied the attention of arclneologists. Nicolas Bergier, the French antiquary, who died in 1623, has left two quarto volumes which he entitled Histoire des Grands Chemins de I’Empire Romain. Pratilli, a writer of the last century, has left a book on the Via Appia; and Volpi, in his work on Latium, treats of the roads which traversed that region. These learned writers, however, tell us nothing of the Macadams of those classic days, and never rise to the idea of a good turnpike road, with our usual quantity of toll Q 208 MIl.ITAnY HOADS OF THE HOMANS bars. T])c Latin grammarians distingiiisli three different denomi- nations of roads: Via, Actus, Jter. Tlie Via answers to tlic Frcncli Route Royale, and was the great main road from one capital or province to another; such were called Vice Consulares. Act?f,s wc should call a bridle-road, about half the size and dignity of the Via, adapted for donkeys and l)i23cds; and Iter seems to be a general term for any path Avide enough to travel upon. The office of taking care of the public roads devolved upon the Curutores^ who appear to have had about the same poAver to inflict penalties for damages or trespasses as our raihvay companies liave to keep the third class in order. Some grand lines of road Avere planned and completed during the Republic, but the earliest and most successful I'oadmakers of the empire AA^ere Julius Caesar and M. Agrippa; of the latter Dion Cassius says, that Avhen he was Aidile in the year of the city 721, he restored all the roads AA’ithout taking a penny from the public treasury. The Emperor Augustus, of Avhom it has been truly said, that, Avdth all his poAA^er and might, he had neither a glass to liis AvindoAV nor a shirt to his back, Avas magnificent enough to make up the Flaminian way as far as Ariminum at his OAvn expense, and ordered the senators to do the same to all the other roads at their expense ; he made also the Milliarium aureum^ of Avdiich I shall shortly say something, and on the occasion of this general repairing of all the roads that issued Jfom Rome, medals Avere struck in commemoration of the same, Avith the superscription Quod Vice Munitce sunt. Nero repaired all the roads in Spain, and I believe modern travellers in that country AA'Ould like much to see him there again. Vespasian Avas a great restorer of the public Vijc, and Trajan’s restoration of the Via Appia is immortalized in sculpture. Marcus Antoninus undertook the roads in Germany and in Belgium ; and the emperors in succession, hoAA^ever neglectful they might be in other matters, seldom got through their career Avithout a little engineering in this line. Finally, Theodoric is the last of the men of power Ave read of AAdio repaired roads in Italy. The devastating Avar of the Goths and Greeks put an end to all such useful enterprises, and the roads became for many centuries almost impracticable. The materials, torn up or pushed from their site, were used for erecting toAvers of defence, or Avails to prevent COMPARED AVITH BRITISH RAILWAYS. 209 incursions of barbarians, and not until civilisation began to dawn did the highways receive any attention from the reigning pow'ers of Italy. I shall now say a few words upon the materials and construction of the Vise Antiquse. Vitruvius does not disdain to give directions for making roads ; he recommends that the engineer should choose solid ground and level it, and upon this lay his first covering ; and that if there be any looseness in the soil, he must consolidate it by means of wooden piles — ‘‘ Fistucationibus cum magna cura soli- detur.” We should hardly imagine that this is a subject for poetry, but yet it is from a passage in the Poet Statius that we chiefly learn how a road was commenced. First they cut two parallel furrows, to indicate the width of the road, and then they cut down between those until they came to the hard bottom, and then began the level- ling. As the construction proceeded, the road assumed a slight convex shape ; the middle or top was called the dorsum, or back-bone of the way, or, as it is called in Virgil, in aggere vi^ roads that were left in the rough material were said to be munitse, but Avhen covered with cut polygonal blocks, it was a “ via strata,” from whence is derived the Italian strada. Specimens of this ‘‘ opus stratum” are still existing on the Via Ostiensis and the Via Appia, in the neigh- bourhood of Eome, but a piece in the best preservation is on the Via Albana, the triumphal way that led up to the temple of Jupiter Latialis, on the Alban Mount; the letters V. N., Via Numinis, may still be read upon this pavement, which has kept its place for near 2,000 years. All these remains, and many others that might be enumerated about the hills of Frascati, Preeneste, and Tivoli, are of the same description, being composed of large polygonal blocks of basaltic lava, found in many places near Eome, particularly in the quarries near the Lake Eegillus, under the Capuchin convent near Bovillse, also near the sepulchre of Cecilia Metella. This sort of stone was called by the ancient Eomans silex^ or lapis siliceus, and the places where it was got were called lapidicinse siliceas; it will be sufficient to offer for your inspection some specimens of this material, which I gathered with my own hands in Italy. The Eoman Via3 were edged by a step on each side; these were called crepidines, margines, or umbones ; they were about nine inches in Q 2 210 TMllJTAUy HOADS OK THE JiOMANS elovutioii. The otlier materials used in roads were a mixture of broken fragments of all sorts, called “ I’udus,” which avc should c.all in plain Englisli, rubbish ; terra cotta, called tesla; and that most plentiful of materials used in all the works of Jiome, tufo. I also offer some specimens of that article taken from the quarries de- scribed by Vitruvius, near Home. The Koman roads issuing from the gates of Koine, or branching out in the immediate neighbourhood, were tweiity-nine in number; they were measured by a thousand paces, Mille Passuum, Avhich is the origin of tlie Avord mile, and short round pillars, called milliaria, marked the distances from each gate. Tn the Forum there Avas set up a pillar, on Avhich Avere inscribed the distances from Koine to each city, Avhere the roads respectively had their terminus. 'J'he distances Avere not measured, as has been erroneously supposed, from this pillar or golden milliarium, but they Avere measured from the gates. This fact of the distances being measured from the gates, is ascertained by the first milliarium on the Via Appia having been found in its place in the Vigna Nari, on the right of the St. Sebastian gate, and the distance of a 1,000 paces being measured by Fabretti toAvards Koine, Avas found to coincide Avith the ancient site of tlie Porta CajAena. The principal roads issuing from the gates of Koine are exhibited on the sketch before you, but you Avill not expect me to travel Avith you on them all. I must select tAvo for notice and one for detail, Avhen I have first stated the authorities Ave have for the names, number, and direction of all the roads in the Western emjiire. There are three ancient itineraries which have come down to us, enumerating, like a modern Livre de Poste, the various roads and distances from place to place. The first is commonly called the Itinerary of Antoninus, because it Avas made and published during the peaceful reign of the Antonines, the golden period of the Koman empire. During those forty years of peace and good government, the arts and useful public works were encouraged ; and it is one of the blessings upon Avhich we may congratulate the profession of architectural science and art, that it flourishes best in the atmosphere of jAeace and good Avill on earth. T1 ic second Itinerary was discovered at Augusta (Aost), in the pos- session of a certain Conrad Peutinger, and is knoAvn under the name of the Carta Peutingeriana ; it is evidently of Christian times, men- COjMPARED with BRITISH RAILWAYS. 211 tion being made of St. Peter’s Church; the orthography bctraj^s the corrupted language of the eighth century, but, notwithstanding these defects of composition and spelling, it is a precious document, and unique of its kind, being the only one that affords us the least information of the state of the world at that period. The third of these ancient Itineraries was found at Bordeaux; it describes the journey from that city to Jerusalem, and is known on that account iLiider the title of the Jerusalem Itinerary ; it appears to be of about the same date as the Carta Peutingeriana. These are the three documents from which is to be gathered all that can be known of the public roads of the Eoman empire. The two ancient Vise best known to the present world are the Via Flaminia, by which tra- vellers from the North enter Rome, and the Via Appia, by which they leave it to travel to Naples. The Via Aurelia, which led to Centum Cella3, now Civita Vecchia, has recently acquired a celebrity which it never enjoyed in ancient times. The Via Flaminia, however, does not proceed in the direction of the modern road to Florence beyond the Ponte Molle ; after passing that bridge, which is two miles from the gate, the post road falls in with the Via Cassia, and the Via Flaminia leads into solitudes and Mount Soracte. This celebrated Roman road Avas constructed by Caius Flaminius, the unfortunate consul aaJio fell at the battle of Thrasimene ; at that time the Flaminian gate was at the upper end of the Corso, under the Capitoline Hill, so that it Avas ahvays reckoned ad Pontem iii. The Via runs through the Campus Martius ; it ended at Arimenum, noAv Rimini, a distance of 222 miles ; it passed through Narni, Terni, Spoleto, before it cut through the Appenines to reach Pisaro, and in some places, especially betAveen the Ponte Molle and Soracte, considerable remains of it may be traced. The road Avhich I shall rather seek noAv to describe, and make the object of comparison, is the Via Appia, upon Avhlch were bestowed the greatest care and expense, both under Republican and Imperial Rome. It Avas chiefly on the Appian way that the great triumphal processions approached Rome from the East ; the chariot Avheels of Pompey and triumphant Sylla moved over its paA^ement, Avhich, in some places, still exists ; its splendid sepulchral monu- ments on each side of it have left their skeletons to mark its 212 MILITARY ROADS OF THE ROMANS direction ; and we may still stand near the tomb of Cecilia Metella, and imagine, amidst the stillness which now prevails, the shouts of the applauding multitudes which welcomed Cicero from exile. This was called the Queen of Roads, as Statius the poet sings : Appia Longarum tcritur regina Viaruni. This road was first constructed by Appius Claudius, the censor, 310 years before the Christian era ; it was repaired and laid down in many places with new' silex by Trajan, and, in all probability, made entirely anew from Beneventum to Brundusium ; several of the milliaria arc still standing along the Pontine Marshes, bearing inscriptions which tell us that Trajan laid it down with silex, at his own exj^ense, silice siid pcciinid stravit, and the dates square with the 104tli year of the Christian era. We have a graphic description of the Via Appia given by the secretary of Iklisarius in the sixth century, w'hich it will be interesting to hear. “ To traverse the Appian Way,” says Procopius, is a distance of five days’ journey for a good walker, and it leads from Rome to Capua ; its breadth is such that two chariots may meet upon it, and pass each other with- out interruption, and its magnificence surpasses that of all other roads. For constructing this great -work, Appius caused the materials to be fetched from a great distance, so as to have all the stones hard, and of the nature of millstones, such as are not to be found in this part of the country ; having ordered this material to be smoothed and polished, the stones were cut in corresponding angles, so as to fit together in jointures, wnthout the intervention of copper, or any other material to bind them, and in this manner they were so firmly united, that in looking at them one would say they had not been put together by art, but had grown so upon the spot, and notwithstanding the w^earing of so many ages, being traversed daily by a multitude of vehicles and all sorts of cattle, they still remain unmoved, nor can the least trace of ruin or waste be observed upon these stones, neither do they appear to have lost any of their beautiful polish ; and such is the Appian Way.” Whatever we may say about our modern railways and great works of the present century, the paving of Appius Claudius, made just 21 G1 years ago, might be safely recommended to the study of the Curators of Oxford COMPARED WITH BRITISH RAILWAYS. * 213 Street and the Marylebone Vestry the next time they lay their heads together to make a wooden pavement. I shall give but one specimen of the form of those ancient Itineraries to which I have alluded, by taking the journey from Rome to Capua, properly called the Via Appia ; the further distance, from Capua to Brundusium, must be considered as an addition made subsequently. The Itinerary of Antoninus gives the stages and distances thus ; Ariciam . M. P. XVI. Tres Tabernas M. p. xvir. Appii Forum M. P. XVIII. Tarracinam M. P. XVIII. Fundos . M. P. XVI. Formiam M. P. XIII. Minturnas M. P. IX. Sinuessam M. P. IX. Capuam . M. P. XXVI. The Via Appia coincides with the modern road that now leads from the church of S. Cesario, where the Via Latina branches out from it, to the church of S. Sebastiano ; continual traces of the old pave- ment may still be seen, as the way runs betweens the naked masses of sepulchres to the ruins, commonly called Roma Vecchia; a little beyond those ruins, which appear to be the remains of a little castrum, the old via falls in with the modern road to Albano, which leaves Roma by the Porta S. Giovanni Laterano ; at ten miles from the site of the ancient Capena gate, which stood under the Therm?? of Caracalla, is to be recognised the site of the ancient Bovillse; and in going from thence, the Via Appia passes through the slope of the Alban hills, and reaches the VaUey of Ariccia ; here we find the first great Avork which belongs to this queen of Roman Avays, The modern road passes through the toAvn of Ariccia, but the old via passed beneath it, having to traverse a valley, and to sustain its level. It is here that we find those magnificent substructions to Avhich I have already alluded; the Avhole extends for a length of 100 geometrical paces, and the greatest depth or elevation is 33 ft., the least 3 ft. ; the whole is a solid mass, except three arches, used for economising of materials, and for greater solidity; and I do not perceive that, in the whole sixteen miles which we have now travelled from Rome on this via, there are any great cuttings or levellings 214 MILITARY 1K)AT).S OF TTIE KOMAXS which would pass tlie ordinary labour of laying down a road ; from Ariccia we descend to Genzano, and npproach the T.ake ofNerni. The Via Appia, having now reached the edge of the routine Marshes, runs in a dead flat to Terracina ; the next two stages (mutationes) after Ariccia, bring us to names consecrated in sacred history ; the Christians of Home thought it not a journey too far to go out, some thirty-three miles, and some fifty-one, to meet the great Apostle of the Gentiles coming from I’uteoli, at Appii Forum and the dlirce I'averiis. But at Terracina it was necessary to cut away the rock, to make room for a passage between Anxur and the sea-shore ; the white rocks of Anxur still shine in the sun, as they did when Horace made his journey to Brundusium, and 1 consider this passage of the rocks of Anxur to have been the second great work in making the Via Appia. Sixteen miles further is the town of Fondi, and it is easy to see that much labour has been expended about that ancient town, and about Itri, in carrying on the straight line of road, but after clearing Formia, near the present INIola di Gaeta, the difficulties must have ceased ; the famous Miuturnian Marshes might require a large quantity of the ruhus and fistu- cationes of Vitruvius, to^ gain a solid bottom, but nothing serious obstructs the engineer until he arrives at Capua, having effected a distance of 142 miles. There is one particular in which the engineering of Roman roads and modern railways coincided, they both pursued a straight line, both filled up hollows, or bestrode vallies and glens by viaducts and bridges, both cut through hills, and cleared away opposing rocks, and even a tunnel is not wanting to compare with some of our own, in the Grotto of Posilipo, near Naples, and the cuttings of the rocks of Anxur may be placed at humble distance with the blasting of the cliff at Dover. But in making these comparisons, it is always to be borne in mind that the ancients had no gunpowder, and wanted all those mechanical inven- tions which modern science has given us ; but even in a comparison of manual labour and quantity of material, it might, I think, be shown that all the great works of the Roman Empire would hardly equal in the aggregate the works which now exist in a single, and that the most contemptible province of the dominions of Augustus Cicsar. Jiefore I proceed to speak of our own great works, I will COMPARED WITH BRITISH RAILWAYS. 215 enumerate some of those of the greatest celebrity belonging to the ancient Romans. The substructure of the Ariccian Valley may be calculated by cubic feet of masonry, if we may so call these large masses of stone laid one upon another ; taking those substructions at 500 ft. in length, 18 ft. in mean depth or height, and a width of 26 ft. as measured by Pratilli, and supposing the mass to be solid and uniform, we get an amoimt of 234,000 cubic feet. I have already mentioned the cutting of the rock of Terracina ; another example of great manual labour is to be seen in going from Rocca di Papa to the Via Latina, under the Mons Algidus ; the mount is cut for a considerable distance down to a depth of 50 ft., so as to give a narrow passage, in which the traveller finds himself a prisoner, if any one chose to block up the entrance either way. Again, three miles from Acqualagna on the Via Flaminia, not far from Fossombrone, there is a great work, a narrow passage cut out of a rock, a part of which is even cut through, so that an arch is formed over head; it appears from traces of inscriptions, that Vespasian was the author of this bold enterprise. We are all familiar with the Pont de Gard, near Nismes, which I cite because it was a bridge as well as an aqueduct. Perhaps, the greatest work of all is the Via Trajana, leading to his bridge across the Danube; there, under a perpendicular cliff, a road is ingeniously cut out, and a foundation given to it by means of beams inserted in the rock ; and every one must admire the skill which has overcome such formidable obstacles to making a road. Draw- ings illustrative of this great work, and a detailed description, may be seen in Paget’s work; the bridge to which the Via Trajana led was the same as that which is sculptured on his triumphal column. I shall hardly cite as works of human labour the wonder of the Phlegrean fields, in the Bay of Baias; for there the earth has been cut and slashed by the power of volcanic action, and the ground tunnelled in various directions without the intervention of the iron instrument. The poets in these regions made an easy descent to Avernus. Even the grotto of Posilipo is half-formed by nature, and it must be confessed, wonderful as the passages are which are perforated in this alluring region, that the Box Tunnel would 2i0 :RITLTTAIIY PiOADS OF THE ROMANS swallow them all, and a single company of railway directors digest them at a sitting. But wc have Jiot seen all the niagnificcncc or the industry of the Eomans. Jn the Itineraries, published by Wesseliiig, Gale and Stukeley for Britain, and INF. Danville ior Gaul and Italy, Ave may acquire some idea of this branch of Roman economy. From the Avail of Antoninus to Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, that is, from the north -Avest to the south-east point of the empire, Avas measured a distance of 3,740 English miles; of this distance 85 miles only Avere sea-passages, the rest was the road of polished silex, such as 1 have described. Rosts Averc established along these mighty lines of high road, so that a hundred miles a day might be Avith ease accomplished. In the time of Theodosius (as the historian Gibbon quotes from Libanius) a magistrate went post from Antioch to Constantinople; he began his journey at night, Avas in Cappadocia, 1G5 miles from Antioch, the ensuing evening, and arrived at Constantinople the sixth day about noon — the distance being G85 miles. This, hoAvever, is not equal to the speed Avith Avhich the Tartar couriers go from Constantinople to Belgrade, often accomplishing that distance of 800 miles in five or six days. It is right to mention a fact related by Pliny, as affording an example of the quickest travelling in a carriage I am aAvare of in ancient times. Tiberius Nero, Avith three carriages, accomplished a journey of 200 miles in tAventy-four hours, Avhen he Avent to see his brother Drusus, who Avas sick in Germany. We shall noAV turn to a single province of the Roman Empire, and Ave see with Avonder and admiration how its resources of wealth and genius have surpassed all the glory of the then knoAvn world. The distance between the two extremities of the dominions of the Antonines, exclusive of sea-passages, Avas 3,G55 miles. I am Avilling to suppose that this great line of road was laid doAvn Avith polished stone, and might have cost as much per mile as the Via Appia. If Ave suppose our numerous turnpike roads (some of Avhich were made at a great cost) to be a set-off against the branch roads of the Roman Empire, Avhich Avero often inferior in construc- tion, then Avc have about 5,000 miles of railway in Great Britain alone, to compare Avith the great line which joined Jerusalem Avith the Firth of Forth. We have no means of estimating the cost of a compahed with British railways. 217 mile of Roman road by any audited account of expenses, and it is not easy to make a comparison of labour. The following may help us to form some idea, rather than any estimate. In the high-level Bridge of Newcastle, the quantity of masonry, in piers and in land- arches, approaches, &c., is 681,609 cubic feet, and the cost of that masonry was £120,000. I find this to be about 3s. 6^d, let us say 3s. 6(i., per cubic foot, and if estimated by the cost of labour, and the greater difficulty in the transport of material, I doubt whether the old Romans could do it for less. In those magnificent substructions of the Via Appia near Ariccia, we have found by measurement (taking the whole mass) about 234,000 cubic feet. Now the internal mass in all cases was, to use a Vitruvian term, ad em'plecton^ or, as we might call it, rubble ; making all due allow- ance for this, I should not have in the Valley of Ariccia, reckoning the stone-work 5 feet on each flank, more than 100,000 cubic feet, i. e. reckoning at 3s. 6r?. per cubic foot, about £17,000 worth of real masonry ; and this in the tenth part of a mile In the whole length of the 142 miles to Capua, v/e do not find more than two other extra works, viz. at Terracina and at Fondi; so that the cost of the Via Appia would not probably exceed £32,000 (the average price of a mile of our railway) above the ordinary expenditure of making a common road. I confess this is a vague calculation, if even it can be called one ; but if it should be raised to the utmost stretch of imagination, it would be insignificant, as to pounds sterling, by the side of our leviathan railroads. The following I have on good authority, as the average cost of a mile of railway throughout Great Britain ; the cost being, of course, very unequal in different places : — £. Land Earthwork . Tunnelling . Masonry Viaduct and Large Bridges Permanent Iron Road Stations . 6,000 . 5,000 . 3,000 . 3,000, ordinary line . 3,000 . 5,000 . 4,000 Law Expenses, Engineering, Svrveying, &c. 3,000 £32,000. If this be multiplied by 5,000, which was the aggregate length of 218 INIlLITAllY ROADS OF THE HOMANS British railways in 1851, and is now, of course, considerably larger, we have the almost fabulous amount of IGO millions, a sum fully equal to ten times the revenue of all the Roman provinces in the time of Augustus. I have spoken of 234,000 cubic feet of masonry and rubble as contained in one of the great Avorks of the Via Appia; the high-level Bridge at NeAvcastlc alone, as we liave seen, contains of masonry 081,600, of rubble 110,300, of concrete 40,224, total 844,220, besides 5,050 tons of iron, of which the Romans knew nothing; the whole eost of this undertaking was £234,450. The cubic feet of masonry in the Britannia Bridge, which we must consider as a viaduct, and the wonder of the present age, is 1,500,000, and the cost, approximately calculated by Mr. Edwin Clarke, Avas £001,805; the cost of tlie Coinvay Bridge, Avith £38,500 Avorth of masonry, was £145,100; and finally the Tweed Viaduct is said to contain tAvo million cubic feet of masonry. We have then in these four great Avorks alone — the Britannia and Con- Avay bridges, the Newcastle and Beiuvick viaducts or bridges, near 41- millions of cubic feet of masonry; the Avhole costing not less than £1,280,000. That is to say, if Ave could find in the Roman Empire one hundred such works as the celebrated substruction of the Via Appia, they Avould hardly equal in masonry or stone-Avork these four productions of the “ ultimi Britanni ;” this is independent of such material as the ancient Romans could not procure, and for Avhich we must not charge them; — 9,420 tons of iron were em- ployed in the Britannia Bridge, and 5,050, as I have said, in the high-level Bridge of NeAVcastle. It is probable that whole armies Avorked at the Roman roads, bridges, and viaducts, and it Avould not be fair to compare their mechanical apparatus Avith the scientific inventions of modern times ; but it may be doubted Avhether they ever presented such a union of physical poAver as Avas seen one day on the Menai Straits, Avhen 650 men Avere employed in raising the second tube of the great bridge, of whom 380 were sailors ; and although, as I have said, Ave have but little or no data to go upon for making a comparison of expenditure and labour, yet we may gather enough to maintain the proposition, that all the great Avorks of the Roman empire connected Avith their lines of communication did not equal the Avorks of a similar kind Avhich noAV exist in the COMPARED AVITIl BRITISH RAILWAYS. 219 island of Britannia. Another thing which hinders us from making comparisons as to cost, we have in every line of railway £6,000 per mile for land — Appius Claudius cut through the country of the Volsci without asking the price, and dispensed with all juries for assessing damages. The ‘‘ mutationes ” (hovels where they changed horses) were all the stations that occurred on their line — the com- forts of law expenses were not known, and I doubt much if the surveyors and engineers got £1,200 a-mile. I wish I could have found how many sestertia Trajan paid for his restoration of the Via Appia, but all the data I have to guide me in the calculation of that expenditure are, that Trajan paved the road out of his own money, de sud pecunid stravit ; this, however, is more than can be said for many of the projectors of our modern railways — de aliend pecunid ferro straverunt, i.e. they laid down the iron with other people’s money, might be a more appropriate inscription. When Augustus re-made the Flaminian way to Eimini, he was the sole shareholder, and gave no scrip. Julius Caesar and Marc Antony raised great works, but they knew nothing about raising dividends ; but that which would have astounded them more than an irruption of bar- barians, would have been a bill of £1,800 for every mile of road for parliamentary and law expenses ; if this be a true average, which I have authority for stating that it is, then we may deduct from the cost of 3,740 miles of Eoman road, which led from Scotland to Je- rusalem, the sum of £6,732,000; and if those worthies of old time had been called upon to make 5,000 miles of road in the province of Britain, they might have economized 30 millions of our money by paying nothing for land. In estimating the value of a Eoman road, therefore, we have to deduct £7,800 a-mile for land and law, and £4,000 for stations, and £5,000 for iron, before we come to the materials they were enabled to use ; in other words, the materials of the Eoman road and labour would not be more than half the cost of our railways, from the mere fact of certain expenses being- absent, which they could not understand ; but, although inferior to the Britons of the nineteenth century in the art of spending money, if judged by the present state of the science, they could not be despicable engineers — their levels were chosen on different principles, but their lines of roads passed through the same countries, and gene- 220 IMILITAKY KOAD8 OV THE UOMA^JS rally in the same direction, as onr railways. A diagram taken from an article of the Quarterly Review, writlen some years ago, ex- hibiting a general view of the direction of the principal Roman roads in England, shows that on comparing one or two of our prin- cipal lines, we shall find that the Great AVestern, e.g. supplies the place, with a little deviation near lieading, of the iioman iter from London to Bath and Bristol ; the Liverpool and Manchester, and on to Leeds and York, replace the northern AVatling Street; the Eastern Counties follow a Roman way, and so of the rest. In boasting of the gigantic steps which the art of road-making has taken in our time, we cannot afford to depreciate either the genius or the magnificence of the ancient Romans in this matter. If we have our railway under the cliffs of Dover, Trajan had his road under 2,000 feet of perpendicular cliff along the Ister; if we have our 5,000 miles of rails, the Romans had their 4,000 miles of chosen road, reaching from one extremity of the empire to the other; if we have our leviathan bridges and viaducts, the Romans had theirs over greater rivers and wider vales than we have to deal with ; and, finally, if we had our glass bazaar, one-third of a mile long, in Hyde Park, they had a golden palace, which reached a Avhole mile on the Esqueline Hill. If Ave rise superior and look down upon the works of the Romans, it is not so much that we have gained in unskilful labour, as in science. Without the iron and the science, their Avorks Avould be as great as ours ; it is in mental rather than in any physical energies, that Ave have the pre-eminence ; it is AA^hat our last great poet has called the “ divine particle,” Avhich has been dilated by Him avIio gave it to man, that has enabled us to cope with the very elements, and wing our Avay against Avind and 'tide over oceans and seas unknoAvn to the ancients. The spirit of a man Avhich is in him is capable of knoAving the things of a man, and this capability it is the business of all associated bodies to foster and draAV out ; it is not, perhaps, yet knoAvn of Avhat the human thought is still capable, but the blessing of every discovery in art or science which procures fresh enjoyment for man is, that it brings brute force to a discount, and teaches to mankind the lesson of fraternity and peace ; and it is not perhaps too much to say that this question of roads, by Avhich all nations of the earth are brought COMPARED WITH BRITISH RAILWAYS. 221 ■within the possibility of meeting again on some plain of Shinar, is calculated more than any other human instrument to rene’W the face of the earth. June 19th, 1857. Colonel the Honourable JAMES LINDSAY in the Chair. The means of practically APPLYING the PRINCIPLES of MEDICAL GEOGRAPHY, for the PRESERVATION of the health of soldiers and SEAMEN in FOREIGN CLIMATES. By Dr. Bird, F.G.S. Last year I laid before you the principles of Medical or Noso- Geography; in other "words, the faets of physical geography and vital statistics, inductively used for investigating the la'ws under ■which health and disease are distributed through the human family, and in various latitudes. On that occasion I brought to notice, lio-w that this promising field of research forms only part of medical , etiology, or a knowledge of the causes of disease, associated with geographical situation, and the climatology of particular countries ; and that if those entrusted with the health of, or in command of, either soldiers or sailors in those countries, would but rightly appre- ciate the importance of the duties committed to them, they would endeavour to acquire useful knoAvledge of the influence of climate on health, and of subjects connected Avith the treatment as well as the prevention of disease. \ The more material agencies Avhich geographically regulate not only the diversities of vegetable and animal structure, but the pro- duction of disease also, are the geographico-meteorological causes of atmospheric temperature and humidity, measured by isothermal lines, Avhich connect places having the same mean temperature, but which differ sensibly from the lines of latitude. The mean^ tem- peratures calculated from an equatorial mean of 81° 50' Falir., 222 THE HEALTH OF SOLHTEES AND SEAMEN according to Dr. Brewster’s formula, and wliich differ considerably from the mean temperatures obtained by observation, arc given in the annexed Table from Daniell’s Elements of IVIeteorology : \ Latitude. Observed Mian Temperature. Mean Tempera- ture calculated by Formula. 1 Difference. ! Equator - 0 0 0 8L50 81-50 I 1 ' 0-00 Coluinbo . . 6 58 79-50 80-90 1-404- Chandernagore - 22 52 75-56 75-10 0-46- Cairo - - 30 2 72-82 70-56 1-76- Funchal - - - 32 37 68-54 68-62 0-08-j Rome - _ 41 54 60-44 60-66 0-22-j f- Montpellier - 43 36 ! 59-36 59- 0-36- Bourdeaux - - ! 44 50 ! 56-48 57-82 1-34 + Milan - - 1 45 28 1 57-18 58-28 l-lO-f Nantes - - - i 47 13 54-68 55-35 0-67+ 8t. Malo- . _ 1 48 39 54-14 53-85 0-29- Paris - - 48 50 51-89 53-65 1-76+ Brussels - _ _ 50 50 51*80 51-47 0-33- Dunkirk - - - 51 20 50-54 51-25 0-71+ London - - - 51 30 50-36 50-74 0-38+ Bushey Heath - - 51 37f ; 51-20 50-58 0-62- Kendal - - - 54 17 46-02 47-58 1*56-1- New Malton . - 54 10 48-28 47-53 0 75- Lyndon - - - 54 34 48-90 49-37 0-47-+ Dublin - - - 53 21 49-10 48-65 0-45- Copenhagen - - 55 41 45-68 45-95 0-274- Edinburgh - - 55 57 46-23 45-64 0-59- Carlscrona - - 56 16 46-04 45-46 0-58- Fawside - - . 56 58 ' 44-30 44-26 0-04- Kinfauns - - 56 23 k i 46-20 45-12 1-08- Stoekholm - 59 20 : 42-26 41-57 0-69- Upsal - - 59 51 42-08 40-94 1-14- Abo - . 60 27 1 40-00 40-28 0-28- Umeo _ - 63 50 I 33-08 35-96 2-88- Uleo - - 65 30 33-26 34-38 1-11- These mean temperatures are usually higher in the same latitude of the old world than of the new, and are greater in northern than in southern latitudes. Thus the isothermal line of 59° Fahr., traverses the latitude of 46° in Europe, but descends to latitude 36° in America. The general causes which disturb the symmetrical distribution of temperature, are, the annual variations of the upper equatorial and louver polar currents of the atmosphere, the difference of contained luimidity, the unequal distribution of land and Avater in various countries, the peculiar nature of the surface land, and its relative licight above the level of the sea. All these causes have more or THE LABOR PARTY IN ENGLAND 7671 organizations. Sixteen are miners, 7 from the Independent Labor party, 3 from the Local Committee, 3 are railroad employees, 2 engineers, 2 steel smelters, 2 shipwrights, and I of each of the following trades: com- positors, masons, carpenters, cotton oper- tives, iron founders, lithographic printers, furnishing trades, boot and shoe operatives, typographical association, shop assistants, weavers, barge builders, gasworkers, navvies, sailors and firemen, and carpenters and joiners The affiliations of three of the Laborites are doubtful. Among the trades unionist group the miners are easily in the ascendency with sixteen members. Fourteen of these are quite in- dependent of the Labor caucus and are per- haps the best representatives of actual Im- perial democracy, the free choice by the people of their best men to speak for them in the National Assembly. Unlike many of the other Labor members, the miners’ mem- bers are not carpet-baggers imposed on an electorate by the party machine in the Eng- lish way, so incomprehensible to most Amer- icans. Many of the Labor members who live in London have been elected by con- stituencies all over the north of England. Of the other trade organizations, the railway men and the printing trades have three rep- resentatives each; the engineers, shipwrights, and steel smelters have two representatives each ; and sixteen other trades have one each. Forty-one members are furnished and sup- ported by unions. Several others have a local trades union backing but are not the official representatives of a single union nor wholly maintained by it. Next there are seven members nominated and supported by an organization called the Independent Labor Party, which, for the sake of brevity and to avoid going into a complicated story may be called the purely Socialist branch of the Labor Party. It is an offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation in which soft handed Socialists like George Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb, and R. B. Cunninghame Graham stir up their horny handed fellow theorists. In this group is Mr. Keir Hardie, who was its only representative in the last house and who, because of his ability and his Parliamentary experience, is talked of as the leader for the whole Labor party. In that case a pronounced Socialistic line of conduct may be looked for. The support of these various members is further divided on account of the Labor Rep- resentation Committee. This is a coalition of trades unions and Socialists formed to se- cure Labor members for Parliament. At the last conference in 1905 it had 165 trades unions and 76 trades councils affiliated with three large bodies of Socialists and a total claimed membership of 900,000. Each trades council (an association of local trades unions) pays about $10 per year, and other organ-^ izations such as local trades unions and social-B ist societies pay say $3.50 for each i,ooo« members. These payments make up the\ ordinary funds for the support of the Commit- tee. There is a separate fund for the support of representatives in Parliament made up of an annual contribution of 2 cents for each M. P. paid by members of every affiliated society. This sum amounted in 1905 to about $40,000. It is from this fund that the Committeee will allow each of its elected members $1,000 a year and 25 per cent, of his election expenses. At the last election the Committee put forward fifty-one candidates of whom twenty-nine were elected. Of this number seven represent the Independent Labor Party (Socialists) and the rest various trades unions which have put their nominees in the hands of the Committee. It is clear, there- fore, as The Times remarks, that the finalTcIffi:^ as well as the electoral strength of the move- ment rests upon the trades unions rather than upon the Socialists. The parliamentary strength and compo- sition of the Labor party are yet indeter- minate. They will depend to a great extent on future events, and will probably vary with circumstances. Only twenty-nine of the members are bound together, and on sorn^ votes this may be all of their strength. On others it may be so much as sixty by the ] inclusion of all possible Labor members and some young Radicals who are not bound tc the Government. Upon questions which immediately concern the trades unions the party front will be most united. There seems so far no definite platform, or pro- gramme. Amendments to the Workmen’s Compensation Act so that compensation shall be payable from the date of an injury and, in the case of young people, that the amount of damage for an injury shall be reckoned on prospective not past earnings; 7672 A NEW JvSTIIMIAN RAILROAF) the inclusion of all workmen; the restriction of insurance companies from .procurinj^^ the discharge of old or feeble workmen and a guarantee against the employer’s bankruptcy all these have been asked for. As The Times sharply remarks, in discussing these proposals, it is highly problematical how these charges will commend themselves to the numerous employers who grace the Lib- eral benches. Another matter of vital interest to trades unions occupying a prominent place on the Labor party’s programme, is the necessity for some legal definition of the position of trades unions since the Taff Vale decision. This declared that the unions as corporations are liable for damages inflicted by strikes which they have ordered, flflie unions main- tain that their funds are benevolent only, and cannot be sequestered for damages. Other matters discussed by members of the new party are measures for dealing with the unemi)loyed, and, if the next winter brings forth an army of distre.ss such as I)reyed upon London during that just passed the President of the Local Government Hoard, the Rt. Hon. John Burns will not have an enviable time at the hands of his former associates. Another Socialistic meas- ure, the feeding of children in the public schools has already been discussed in the present Parliament without a decision. Some of the more advanced Laborites de- mand not only food but clothes for the public school children. There are many other measures in the background, like old age pensions and very large measures of electoral reform and remission of taxation, which so far have never come nearer to actualities than inclusion in some Labor programmes. J he Labor party in England is now a living growth, full of strength and vital promise. But the fruits of its labors are not even in the bud. A NEW ISTHMIAN RAILROAD MEXICO COMPLETING THE TEHUANTEPEC ROUTE THAT WILL BRING NEW YORK ^1200 MILES BY SEA NEARER SAN FRANCISCO THAN THE PANAMA ROUTE-THE STORY OF ITS BUILDING— A LINK IN A GREAT INTERNATIONAL SYLSTEM BY EDWARD M exico is about to take a twelve- hundred-mile ‘ ‘ kink ’ ’ out of the line of international commerce which has been using the Panama route. At the ^sarne time it will give the American trans- coiitinental railroads a tremendous shock by ojjcning a new short route from the Atlantic to the Pacific which they cannot control. By .tlic end of the year the new railroad across the Isthmus of fl'ehuantepcc is to be opened to interof:eanic traflic (m a large scale, 'khe railroafl has been comj)leted for some time aiifl is ill cqxTation for l(;cal traflic. It is only awaiting tlie comjfletion oi its terminal ports to b(!gin handling ocean fiaiiglit. 'I'licse ports, thongli tli(;y will not be fully comiikaed in le.ss than twf) or three years, will soon be suflicicntly advancefl to be ns(*(l by vessels of any size. M. CONLEY The railroad, being 600 miles north of the Panama railroad, is that distance nearer the natural line of the world’s east and west commerce. It will brings New York and North Atlantic ports 1200 miles, and New Orleans and Gulf ports 1400 miles, nearer to San Francisco, Japan and China. The sailing time from New York to Coatzacoalcos, the Atlantic terminal port, will be six or seven days, two days less than to Colon, the Atlantic port of the Panama railroad. Cargo from a vessel landing at Coatzacoalcos, say of 10,000 tons, can be aboard another vessel in the harbor of Salina Cruz, in four or five . days. In an emergency the trans-shipment could be accomj)lishcd in thirty-six hours. The same freight could not be transferred across the Islhimis of Panama in less than three wc(‘ks, possibly longer. At wSalina Cruz, A NEW ISTHMIAN RAILROAD 7673 the Pacific port, the vessel is two days nearer San Francisco than it would be at Panama. This serves to illustrate what the new route means in saving time. But perhaps the more important fact is that the Tehuantepec railroad is able to handle ocean freight at all. Can the Panama Railroad? Under its old management Amer- ican transcontinental railroads controlled it and rendered it valueless as a competing line. That is now changed, but without radical There will be no discrimination. All shippers will be treated exactly alike. The rate ques- tion was settled in Mexico long ago. The Mexican government fixes all railroad rates and, strange as it may seem to American shippers, the law is obeyed. The building of such a railroad was unsuc- cessfully attempted a great many times during the past half-century, mostly by Americans. The Tehuantepec route has been much dis- cussed in the United States in connection LA^.600 Hap showing prmcipal raUraatJ^ Une$ Indicate cam- roads. Bries indicate new roads to lie Guatemala THE RAILROADS OF MEXICO, SHOWING THE NEW TEHUANTEPEC TRANS-ISTHMIAN LINE X E JCA S improvements the Panama railroad could not possibly handle all the traffic that would naturally go to it. During the construction of the Canal the handling of general freight across the Isthmus of Panama will be limited and uncertain at best. The Tehuantepec railroad has been completed just in time to relieve the situation. It will be able at all times to handle all the business that comes to it without delay. It will be operated independently and upon a strictly business basis by a man who knows how to run it. with the Panama and Nicaragua routes. About the middle of the last century it was proposed that the United States build a rail- 1 road across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for international use, assuming control over and guaranteeing the neutrality of a strip of land on either side of it. Mexico was willing, but two treaties failed to obtain the approval of the American Senate and the matter was dropped. In the 70’s a commission was appointed by our Government to report upon the feasibility of an interoceanic canal across i r A Nl<:w ISTHMIAN RAILROAI') 7674 the Isthmus, and the Teluiant('])ee route had strong support in Congress. Some time prior to that an attempt was made to interest the Government in a scheme to build a “ship- railroad” across the Isthmus, which would carry vessels bodily on huge platforms resting upon parallel tracks across the narrow neck of land. More than a score of attempts were made by American companies and individ- uals to build a railroad as a private enter- prise, under concessions from the Mexican government. The road has finally been built by Sir Weetman Pearson, the English contractor, at the expense of the Mexican government. It is to be operated by the contractor in jiart- nership with the Government for a long term of years. Its total cost, including the harbor and port improvements at its terminals, which constitute the chief items, will be nearly $25,000,000. The road is 190 miles long, following the only break in the great mountain range that extends through North, Central, and South America, and the route is, therefore, com- paratively level. The chief difficulty in building a railroad in the tropics is to con- struct it so that it will withstand the torrential rains. The Tehuantepec railroad is most substantially built, with rock-ballasted road- ffieavy creosoted ties, heavy rails, and heavy steel bridges, with unusually heavy masonry supports. Yet even with these precautions some sections of the track have been washed out a great many times. Experi- ence and experiment have finally enabled the builders to overcome this difficulty sufficiently so that no interruption of traffic is likely to occur after the road begins handling trans- isthmian freight. The railroad is amply equip- ,ped with first-class rolling stock to handle a great volume of traffic without delay. 'I'he building of a harbor at Salina Cruz the Pacific terminal was a difficult and costly undertaking, d'here was only an open road- stead and it was necessary to make an artifi- cial rhmble liarbor. d'he outer harbor is being formed by twf> breakwaters thrown out like giant artns into the sea and enclosing, save lor the entrance, a large ar(‘a of water. The inner harbor will be a great exeavatc'd basin around wlnddi will b(; built the (’ustom house, government stores, warehouses, and U'rminal tracks. At one ef>rner of the basin will be a l.'irge tlry (lo(d<. ICvery modern facdlity will be provided for the handling of freight from vessel to cars and vice versa. The river at Coatzacoalcos, the Gulf ter- minal, forms as])lendid inner harbor of unlim- ited capacity. It was necessary to remove a bar at its entrance; so two converging jetties are being built seaward from the mouth of the river, so as to scour out a channel by the action of the river current. The jetties arc nearly a mile long. Docks and warehouses, machinery and appliances for handling freight, and railroad terminal facilities are being pro- vided on a large scale. The railroad will not have to wait for busi- ness when it is ready to handle it. Contracts have already been made with several large shippers to carry their freight across the Isthmus at the earliest possible date. hVorn the day the terminal ports are ready to receive vessels, the road will handle more traffic than is now being handled by the Panama railroad. Arrangements have been made with a number of steamship lines for regular service between Pacific ports and Salina Cruz, and between Coatzacoalcos and North Atlantic ports. The recently completed Vera Cruz and Pacific railroad, now owned by the Mexican government, connects the Tehuantepec rail- road with the City of Mexico and with Vera Cruz, the country’s chief seaport. From San Geronimo, on the Tehuantepec road, the Pan-American railroad is being built south- ward along the Pacific coast toward the Guatemalan border. About 150 miles of it are now in operation and it is hoped to connect it with the railway system of Guate- mala within a year. The Pan-American will be a long link in connecting the railroads of North and South America. Railroads of as great importance to Mexico, and incidentally to us, as the Tehuantepec road are being built in other parts of Mexico. Two lines, the Mexican Central and the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient, are pushing through the rugged mountains of western Mexieo to the Pacific coast. Other lines to western ])orts are ])rojected. This section of Mexieo, which is exceedingly rich in natural resources, has hitherto been isolated. Trans- ])ortation facilities will bring about its speed}^ d('vel()])ment. They will also mark the l)e- gimiing of a new epoch in the commerce of the l\'ici(ic. Western and Central Mexico and the Middle West of the United States will send their ])r()ducts by these new railroads through THE NEW ISTHMIAN RAILROAD 767 Mexican Pacific coast ports to the Orient and other markets of the world. Mexico is already a customer of the Far East to a limited extent and with rail communication between the Pacific coast and the interior of the country that trade will grow. The coastwise trade of the Pacific side of the Americas will be increased considerably. In effect, over 2,000 miles of new coast line, with half a dozen important ports, are about to be added to the commercial map of the Pacific. Sixty-seven miles of track will connect the Guadalajara branch of the Mexican Central Railroad with the Pacific coast port of Man- zanillo. The road is completed as far as Tuxpan and a line extends inland from Man- zanillo to Colima. The descent from Tuxpan to Colima is through exceedingly rough moun- tains and the road between these two points will be a succession of tunnels, bridges, and cuts through solid rock. It is expected that it will be finished in less than two years. The Mexican government is making extensive harbor and port improvements at Manzanillo in anticipation of its completion. Manzanillo is due west of the city of Mexico. It is 600 miles distant by rail and will be the natural Pacific port for the capital. It is about 200 miles distant from Guadalajara, the second largest city in the republic, an.d will give that city an outlet which will be of inestimable advantage to it. The Guadalajara-Manzanillo branch of the Mexican Central and the Tampico branch of the same road will make an almost direct transcontinental line, less than 1,000 miles in length, from Tampico to Manzanillo. This road has a branch running southward from the City of Mexico to the • Balsas river, which it expects to complete to the Pacific port of Acapulco as soon as it finishes its Manzanillo extension. The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient rail- road is building a direct line from Kansas City to Topolobampo, just at the end of the Bay of Lower California. Work is progress- ing simultaneously on different sections of this line. Some parts of it are already in operation. It will be finished very soon after the completion of the Mexican Central’s line to Manzanillo. This road will be of the ' greatest advantage to our Middle West. It will give Kansas City an outlet to the Pacific [ nearly 700 miles shorter than the present } route to San Francisco. That is the distance i from Kansas City to Topolobampo by this new line is only a little more than half the distance by rail to San Francisco. But more important than this is the fact that it will give Kansas City and all the territory tributary to it a competing line that will compete. It will remove the Middle West from the power of American transcontinental lines and enable it to build up a trade with the Orient and with the west coast of North and South America. One of the commissions appointed by the American Government to report upon an isthmian canal gave as its opinion that just such a railroad as this would be of more value to the United States than an inter.- oceanic canal. The Southern Pacific railroad, which has a branch from its main line through Nogales to Guaymas, on the Bay of Lower California, has recently obtained a concession from the Mexican Government to extend its line south- ward along the coast, through the States of Sonora and Sinaloa, to the port of Mazatlan and thence to Guadalajara. The Mexican International, which is now one of the national lines of Mexico, controlled by the Govern- ment, holds a concession for a line from Durango to Mazatlan. And there are other lines making in all an addition of 2,000 miles to the Mexican system of communication. A glance at the accompanying map wi]!-' show that all these 2000 miles of newrrail- roads will not only open up new sections of country to development and new avenues for commerce; they will join Mexico’s 10,000 miles of separate railways into a system. They will not only connect the capital of the country with every section it; they will give each important city of the republic fairly direct connection with every other important city. They will perform the same service for border points, effecting a great saving of- time and distance between American and Mexican cities. Within the next five years Mexico will have a network of railroads, that, with the same amount of mileage, could hardly be improved upon. They will have cost in the neighborhood of $1,000,000,000 of which nearly $400,000,000 will be American capital. American interests will own more than half of them; nearly $400,000,000 will have been spent by the Mexican Government, in subventions, purchase price and cost of construction; and nearly $200,000,000 of native and other capital than American will have been invested. NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER BY LANGDON WARNER T HERE recently died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, much to the saddening of Harvard University and of an un- commonly .wide circle, a man whose personal- ity will always stand out strong in the lives of those that had the good fortune to know him — an unforgettable, many-sided, inspir- ing man. Professor Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, Dean of the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. His father was a Harvard man of the class of 1827 who settled, as a physician, first in Jamaica, whither the family had come from England; but he soon afterward went to Kentucky where his son was born in 1841, on a plantation outside the town of Newport. Here he lived until he was eighteen, attending for a little while the nearby school, but for the most part learning from his old tutor, the German scientist, Escher. He himself told how, when young, he was much alone, roam- 'll^- the eotmtryside with a dog and a musket. Often a little negro of his own age would go with him to carry the powder-flask and bullet- bag. With Herr Escher he read every book that his father’s library afforded, German and English. He studied the classics and dis- cussed philosophy with his tutor, who helped him to classify the collections of rocks, fossils, birds’ eggs, and flora, which he brought home from the tramps and riding trips that took him over four counties and sometimes across the state border. When he was eighteen, in the year 1859, he was sent to Harvard where he enrolled in the Lawrence vScientific vSehool, and studied biology and other natural sciences under Professor Agassiz. With his degree in 1862, he hurried to Kentucky before Commence- ment Day to take a ca])tain’s commission in a light battery, the ['fifth Kentucky of the Union Army, fi'his soon came to be known as “vSlialer’s Pattery ” and gave .a good account of itself thr{)Ugh two years ()f active service. Some of us, his pupils, would give much to have seen the young Captain heading his battery against 13 ragg, or helping to cut off Morgan when he tried to cross over into Ohio. We know that he was a good officer and no slack disciplinarian, but it is safe to say that some of his manoeuvres were not to be found in the tactical treatises. On one occasion at least, he chose to regard his guns as a troop of horse, and used them as such against a dumbfounded enemy. In 1864 Captain Shaler’s health broke down from repeated attacks of camp-fever and from exposure. His usefulness in the army had come to an end. He resigned his commission and went back to Cambridge as instructor in Paleontology. Five years later when he was twenty-eight years old he was appointed a full professor. As we of his later classes knew the Dean, he was tall and lank, with white hair standing stiffly erect from his high forehead. As the chapel bell started in the morning, his door would burst open and he would swing down the path, across a forbidden border of grass, and into the side door of the chapel. Here he sat erect under the preacher’s right hand till the short service was over. At the bene- diction, he about-faced, turned into the main aisle and marched, with his black felt hat grasped to his breast, military fashion, out into the sun. Man was to him the most delightful of all studies. Perhaps it should be said that he was a psychologist before he was a geologist. All science was written for him in terms of humanity, and no theory was too abstract, no law of nature too formal for him to make it instantly human. He had the great quality of being as old or as young as his companions, whether they were children, or boys, or men. When Darwin first propounded the theor}^ of evolution, he eagerly grasped the truth, and cham])ioncd it even against the teachings of his master Agassiz, whom he greatly revered. A young man of the new school of scientists souglit to trick him into an inconsistency, and pointed out that evolution must unsettle the l)cliefs of a man who accepted Christianity. Professor Shaler turned on him and said: 505 Railroad^ Cana\ and Steamboat Statistics. There is one aspect of railroad accidents tliat is very surprising, and which should be stated as a fcr contra. When we take into account the immense num- ber of persons who travel by railroad, it turns out that, when we come to balance the accidents on railways, with those happening to an equal number of persons by the old methods of transport, the advantage is entirely on the side of rail- roads. Thus, in the French post system, there occured in the period from 1846 to 1856, accidents causing 20 deaths and 238 wounded for 7,109,276 passengers carried, giving one to every 355,463 — that is, nearly seven times as many deaths as occur in an equal number by railroad, even according to the reckless Ameri- can system. According to Dr. Lardner’s computations, 366,036,923 passengers must travel one mile to cause the death of one railroad employee. 44ie chances of a person’s meeting bodily injury in traveling one mile of railroad, are 8,512,486 to one. And the chances of one’s meeting with a fatal accident in traveling one mile of railroad, are more than sixty-five million to one ! What a consolation for a cracked cranium or a fractured femur ! COST AND MANAGEMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN RAILROADS. A comparison of the reports, and an examination into the details, of the man- agement of railways in this country and in Europe, disclose the following com- parisons : — Annual expense of American railways $120,000,000 “ “ English rail wavs, same mileage 80,000,000 Annual difference $40,000,000 Average annual expense for maintenance of way of American lines. . $83,000,000 “ “ of English lines, same mileage 12,500,000 Annual difference $20,500,000 Average annual cost of fuel for American lines $18,000,000 “ “ “ English lines, same mileage 7,500,000 Annual difference $10,500,000 Total annual expenses of American railways $171,000,000 “ “ English “ 100,000,000 Total annual difference. $71,000,000 In regard to the net results and financial profits of administration, the contrast between the two systems is remarkable : — England, (1856) France, (1855) New York, (1855) . . . . Massachusetts. (1855).. “ (1856).. Eeceipts per Expenses per Percentage of expenses mile run. mile run. on receipts. $1 44: «^0 63f 4 4 2 03 0 87i 43 1 76 1 00 57 1 69 1 05 62 1 83 1 08 59 The expenses for “ maintenance of way, engines, and working,” are thus stated : — Per cent of Per cent of total expenses, gross receipts. New York railroads 70^ 40.1 Western “ 80 43.8 English railways, (1856) 57 25.3 French “ (1855) ' 48 20.7 JiCiilroad^ Carial^ and Steamhoaf Sf.afisfirs. Some of tlic expenses of American railways arc necessarily I.iglier than those of the Knjrlisli. We must pay more for fuel ; still mon; disproportionately (or labor and service, the wa-es of day laborers here bcin- -a least doable that in l^lnrrland. ^I’he price of land, however, is frreater there. The road-beds in the Northern States are annually upheaved by frost, and the snows of winter, alternating^ with the extreme heats of summer, affect the wooden subsiructures. Our extraordinary freshets in the spring inflict immense damage upon the roads.’ ^riie cost of engines and cars is greater ; and the mechanical repair of both is made at a greater price. Onr roads arc not unfrcrpiently built through fresh-broken wildernesses ; and, it must not be forgotten, are constructed and maintained, less with an idea to their profdablencss, as investments, than for the incidental advantages they con- fer on the neighboring country and the terminal cities and villages. C U B A N R A I L ROADS. The Nay of Havana and Matanzas Hail way was recently opened with great ceremony to Guanabaco. Ilis Excellency, the Captain-General, and suite were imesent, and also the Eight Rev., the Bishop of the Diocese. As on all public occasion in Cuba, there was a great display of the military. The steam ferry- boats connected with the line, which ply from this city to Regia, were gaily decorated with flags and streamers, as was also the railroad depot at Regia— nor could I avoid observing the stars and stripes floating nobly among the rest from the pretty ship Riga, of Marblehead, which was at her berth alongside the com- pany’s wharf. On the lilh August, Ilis Excellency, the Captain-General, accompanied by General Manzano, Segundo Cabo, Brigadiers Echavarria, the political Governor of this city, the Director of Public Works, Don Domingo, and Don Miguel Aldumer, and several other gentlemen, embarked in a special train of the Havana and Gaines Railway to inspect a new iron bridge that has been erected for the purpose of the railway over the River Almendares. The bridge is upwards of seventy feet in length, and is a light and elegant yet strong structure. The new railroad depot, for the railway now building between Regia and Matanzas, is an elegant gothic building, nearly 300 feet in length, and about GO feet in breadth. The painted doors and windows are all of solid mahogany. These two new splendid locomotives, called “ the Marquis de la Habana ” and “ Jacinto G. Laninaga,” were built at Patterson, New Jersey, and each weighs eighteen tons. There is a third locomotive, the “ Edward Fesser,” built at Philadelphia, employed on the line. The first-class passenger cars, are possessed of admirable ventilation and general comfort and elegance. The cars were built in Jersey City. The rails possess uncommon strength, weighing no less than 68 pounds to the yard. This railway will prove of immense public benefit ; at pres- ent, six or seven hours are occupied in going by a circuitous route, change of cars, esi(lcs tlic stoam lines, tlicrc arc lines of sailinpj packets from Liverpool, New York, Ilrenien, Bordeaux, and St. Nazaire to As])inwall. The two first belong to the Panama Kailroad Com])any. The communications between Panama and the Pacific ports arc maintained by the following lines of steamers : 1. The Pacific Steam Navigation Com])any’s vessels, ])lying every fortnight between Panama, and Buenaventura, and Tumaco, in New Granada; Esmeraldas, jManta, and Guayaquil, in Ecuador; Tumbes, Payta, Lambayeque, Pacasmayo, iMala- hrigo, iruanchaco, Santa, Samanco, Casma, Iluarmcy, Su])e, Iluacho, Callao, Cerro Azul, d'ambo de Mora, the Chincha Islands, Pisco, Chala, Quilca, Islay, llo, Arica, iMexilloncs, Pisagua, and Iquique, in Peru ; I'ocopilla and Cobija, in Bolivia ; and Taltal, Ohanaral, Caldera, Carrizal-bajo and Iluasco, Coquimbo, d’ongoy, Valparaiso, Tome, Talcahuano, J^ota, Corral (Valdivia), Ancud, Calbuco, and Port Montt, in Chili. The steamers of this Com])any are the Talca^ Kcuadovy Bof/otd^ lAina^ Callao, V alparaiso, Guaya(pdl, San Carlos, Bolivia, Anne, Cloda, Ne^v Granada, Inca, Morro, and BaytaA A contract was concluded iii 1846, between the British Govern- ment and this Company, for the conveyance of the mails on the AYest Coast of South America. 2. The Panama Railroad Company’s Central American line of steamers, running every fortnight between Panama, Punta Arenas, Reale jo. La Union, La Libertad, Acajutla, and San Jose de Guatemala. 3. The Pacific Mail Steamship Compan^-’s vessels, which run every week from Panama to San Francisco, California, touch- ing at Manzanillo and Acapulco, in Mexico. The passage from Panama to San Francisco is generally made in from twelve to fifteen days. The vessels of this Company are the Golden Age, Golden Gate, Sonora, St. Louis, Uncle Sa^n, Washington, Orizaba, Fremo7it, Califo^mia, Co7istitution, and two others. 4. The Imperial Mexican Company of packets in the Pacific, plying monthly between San Francisco, La Paz, Guaymas, and Mazatlan, and every fortnight between Mazatlan and Acapulco, touching at San Bias and Manzanillo. This and the Oregon line were established in 1861, by Holliday and Flint, of San Fran- cisco, who purchased the steamers Panama, Cortez, Republic, Columbia, and Sier^^a Nevada, from the Pacific Steamship Com- ^ Tlin Vayta, 1800 tons, arrived at Valparaiso in November, 1864, having made the voyage from Liverpool, deducting stoppages, in 31 days, 14 hours, and 59 minutes, altliough she liad to contend with a head wind, a heavy sea, and an adverse current of 7 miles an hour in passing through the Straits of Magellan. The TAmena made the run from Liverpool to Valparaiso in 38 days. Perico ILei\eu> 'SliMM urud by Gojre/l^ Ipo^ deL forUe, Nmbery AUncarider, hthM CoAtU SlHolbom. Plfeute 1 . PAIY A M A PA I P‘ yr AT i PANAMA^ itCtCMACRES THE PANAMA PAILROAD. 51 pany, by whom those lines had been previously managed. On the 31st of January, 1865, Maximilian’s Government agreed to pay an annual subsidy, for seven years from that date, of 70,000 dollars for the main, and 25,000 dollars for the branch line, the former to be under the United States’ flag, the latter under the Mexican. 5. The Oregon and California Steamship Company’s five vessels, plying between California and Eureka (Humboldt Bay), Crescent City, Port Orford, Umpqua, and Gardiner City, in Oregon ; Esquimault, Victoria, in Vancouver’s Island ; and Port Townsend, Steilacoom, and Olympia, in Washington Territory. 6. The Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Boyal Mail Company’s Steamers. This company has a yearly subsidy of 90,000/., for the main line, to be increased to 110,000/., if the New Zealand Government should require the rate of speed to be increased to ten knots an hour. That sum, with the sub- sidies for intercolonial services, would make an aggregate of upwards of 150,000/. per annum. The imports and exports of the Australian colonies for 1863 were : Imports £34,264,597 Exports 28,378,355 Total ... £02,642,952 The exports ineluded £12,677,319 of bullion and speeie. 7. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s monthly line, run- ning between California and China, consisting of four first-class steamers of from 3000 to 4000 tons, for which they receive a subsidy of 100,000 dollars per annum, under contract with the United States’ Government for 10 years, from November, 1865. The route via Kanagawa is 6200 miles long. 8. The California, Oregon, and Mexican Steamship Com- pany’s monthly line from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands, under contract with the United States’ Government, dated Sep- tember 5, 1866. By the old way of transit, one had to flounder on through heavy swamps, across rapid streams, along the borders of deep ravines, and over precipitous hills, exposed alternately to the drenching rain and the broiling sun. But there is no longer either difSculty or discomfort to be feared in crossing the Isthmus. Now the railroad, passing, as it does, through the heart of a primeval forest, and among the wildest and most picturesque hill scenery, along beautiful rivers, fertile plains, and luxuriant lowlands, where the vegetation at every season is varied and gorgeous beyond comparison, affords the traveller an opportunity of easy enjoyment of, and acquaintance with, inter- tropical nature, unsurpassed in any part of the world. E 2 52 ISTHMUS OF UAEIEN AND THE STTIP CANAL. Fehruarij 11 th^ 18G8. BALDWIN LATllA^I, President, in the Chair. ON THE ISTHMUS OF DAPJEN AND THE SHIP CANAL.* By Dr. Cullen. The United States of Colomiha. Up to the end of the first decade of tlie present century Spain held undisputed sway over the nortliern part of South America, which then constituted the Captaincy-General of Car- accas (Venezuela) and the Viceroyalty of New Granada. In the latter was included the Central American Isthmus as far west as Costa Pica. In 1800, a futile attempt to revolutionise Venezuela was made by General Miranda. In 1810 com- menced the general revolt of the Spanish colonies against the mother country, which was brought to a successful issue by Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, in Venezuela, New Granada, and Eqnador, by San Martin and Sucre, in Peru, and by Iturbide and Santa Anna, in Mexico. The following are the principal events of this prolonged war between the European Spaniards and the native Creoles, the horrors of which were increased by the extraordinary natural difficulties of those countries, and the total absence of roads properly so called. ^ 1810, July 20, Antonio Amar Borbon, the last Viceroy, overthrown at Santa Fe de Bogota. 1811, March 28, General Baraya (Pepublican), gained the battle of Palace, in Popayan. November 12, a congress held at Bogota, which, following the example of Venezuela, proclaimed the Republic. 1814, December 12, Bolivar stormed Bogota, and overthrew the government of Cnndinamarca. 1815, April 13, General Pablo Morillo arrived at Porto Santo, in Venezuela, with 15,000 men from Spain. Decembei’ 5, Morillo took Carthagena by famine after 116 days’ siege. * llcfcrencc is made to the map which accompanies Dr. Cullen’s first paper. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 53 1816, May 30, Morillo entered Bogota. June 13, Morillo shot the maiden Policarpa Salavarrieta and others. 1819, August 7, Bolivar defeated and took Barreiro at Boyaca, in tlie province of Tunja. August 10, Bolivar took Bogota. Decem- ber 17, a law was passed by the Congress of Angostura (now Ciudad Bolivar), on the Orinoco, in Venezuela, ereating the Republic of Colombia by the union of Venezuela and New Granada; Bolivar elected President, and Francisco A. Zea, Francisco de Paula Santander, and Roscio Vice-Presidents. 1820, San Martin obtained possession of Lima. 1821, May 6, the installation of Congress took place at San Rosario de Cucuta, in the province of Pamplona. June 24, a decisive victory gained at Carabobo, in Venezuela. October 11, Cartha- gena taken from the Spaniards by Montilla. November 17, Pa- nama taken by Bolivar. 1822, May 24, a great victory gained by the Republicans at Pichincha, in Equador. May 29, Equador, the former Viceroyalty of Quito, joined the Republic of Co- lombia. August 3, Maracaybo in Venezuela capitulated. 1823, November 10, Porto Cabello, Venezuela, capitulated to Jose Antonio Paez. 1824, June 1, last Spanish battle in Colombia fought at Barbacoas, in the province of Pasto. December 9, last Spanish battle in South America gained by the Colombians and Pe- ruvians, under Sucre, over the Spaniards, commanded by the Viceroy Canterac, at Ayacucho, in Peru. 1825, September 15, the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, in Vera Cruz harbour, the last stronghold of Spain in Central America, surrendered to General Santa Anna by General Don Jose Copinger, after a prolonged defence during which most of the garrison died of fever or famine. 1826, January 29, the Spanish flag waved for the last time on American soil, the garrison of Callao, in Peru, under General Rodil, having surrendered by capitulation to General Sucre. 1829, November 24, Venezuela seceded, under Paez, from Colombia. 1830, June 4, assassination of Marshal Antonio Jose de Sucre at the pass of Berruecos in Pasto. December 17, Bolivar died at San Pedro, in the district of Marmato, near Santa Martha. 1831, Colombia dismembered by the separation of Equador, and the independent Republics of Venezuela, New Granada, and Equador formed. 1857, during the Presidency of Citizen Mariano Ospina, the thirty-six provinces and two ter- ritories of New Granada united into eight Federal States, and the title of the Republic changed to that of the Granadian Confederation. 1861, July 18, after the taking of Bogota, during the last of the civil wars which have distracted New Granada, and 54 ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. wliicli lasted from 1859 to 1803, tlie title of the Confederation was altered to that of the United States of Colombia, by a decree of General Tomas Ci])riano de ]\Ios((ncra, the ])rovisional President, and commander of the liberal forces. Mosqucra liad been President from 1845 to 1819, was a^ain elected by the people in 1805, and entered into otlice in Man^h, 1800 ; but was taken prisoner, tried, and banished for four years, in 1807. The State of the Isthmus. It is to the United States of Colombia that the narrow neck of land, extending from the continent of South America to Costa iiica, belongs. The Avestern third is the Isthmus of Veraguas,^ or Chiriqui ; the central, the Isthmus of Panama; and the eastern third, the Isthmus of Darien. Taken together, those isthmi form the State of the Isthmus (Estado del Istmo), Avhieh extends from lat. 0° 50' to 9° 40' N., and from long. 77° to 83° 10' W. Its length is 4G0, and its average breadtli about 50 miles. The narroAvest part is 27, and the Avidest 105 miles. Its configuration is that of a boAAq the coast of the Caribbean Sea forming the convex, and that on the Pacific the concave line. It is bounded on the N. by the Atlantic, on the S. by the Pacific, on the E. by the Gulf of Darien, the river Atrato, and the province of Choco, and on the W. by the republic of Costa Eica. The boundary line between the state and the province of Choco runs from the mouths of the Atrato, in the Gulf of Darien, up that river to the confluence of the Napipi Avith it, up the Napipi to its sources, and from thence across the Cordil- lera to the mouth of the river Cupica, in Cupica Bay, on the Pacific. The boundary between it and Costa Eica runs from Punta Burica, on the Pacific, to the mouth of the Changuene, or Dorachos, on the Atlantic. It is divided into the provinces of Panama, Azuero, Yeraguas, and Chiriqui (formerly Bocas del Toro), and the territory of Burica. These are subdivided into cantons, each having several parishes. The total civilised population of the state, according to the census of 1851, Avas 138,108. To this may be added 5000 for the estimated number of the independent Indians of Yeraguas and Chiriqui, and 3000 for those of Darien, making the total 146,108. The state sends Veragnas gave the title of Duke to Columbus and his desceiidauts. It Avas onee abolished by tlie King of Spain, but restored after a lawsuit whieh the Colon (Colunil)us) family earried on against the Crown for more than thirty years. I'hc late Duke of Yeraguas, Count of Jamaiea, &c,, Don Pedro Colon, was eleeted President of the Cortes of Spain, about the end of ISGl, and died in 1800 . ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 55 three senators and three representatives to the general Congress at Bogota. In the time of the Spaniards the whole isthmus constituted the province of Tierra Firme. In 1821, during the War of Independence, it was incorporated with Colombia. Upon the crismemberment of that republic, in 1831, it became a pro\lnce of New Granada. In 1857, it became a state of the Granadian Confederation, and, in 1861, of the United States of Colombia. The Isthmi of Panama and Daeien. The Isthmus of Panama comprehends the western part of the province of Panama. The Isthmus of Darien constitutes nearly one-half of the State. Having, however, only a very scanty popu lation, it is under the jurisdiction of the province of Panama, of which it forms a canton, which is twice as large as the rest of the province. The boundary between it and the Isthmus of Panama, as determined by a decree of Congress, dated Bogota, August 7, 1847, is a line drawn from the mouth of the Chepo,* or Bayano, ^ in the Gulf of Panama, up the Chepo, across the Cordillera to the mouth of the Mandinga, in the Gulf of San Bias, and round its shore to Cape San Bias, corresponding nearly to the meridian of 79° W. Mountains. The surface of the isthmus is extremely irregular, being traversed by a chain of mountains, which is a continuation of the great Cordillera of the Andes, and intersected by the spurs and ramifications which it sends off in various directions. The Cor- dillera, which follows the direction of the Pacific coast, close to which it runs, passes from Equador into Colombia in about 1° N., and, after traversing the provinces of Pasto, Popayan, Buenaventura, and Choco, enters Darien in about 6° 18' N., inland of Cruces Point. From Equador, in which republic it rises above^the lower limit of perpetual snow, its altitude rapidly decreases to Buenaventura river, and thence to the San Juan. In about 7° SOJ N., near the height called Alto de Espave, it bifurcates. The western branch continues to run close to the Pacific, and terminates in the beautiful mountain of Garachine, behind the point of the same name, which is the S. entrance * The town of Chepo, population 1536, is in the Canton of Panama. It is situated .a few miles from the Gulf of Panama on the Mamoni, a river the lower course of which is parallel to and a short distance west of the lower course of tlie Chepo. 5G ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. of tlie Gulf of San Miguel, and tlic S.E. entrance of the (jiulf of Panama. The height of this mountain is about GOOO ft., and it is said to contain veins of gold in (jiiartz rock. Between the San Juan and Garachine there are three de])ressions. The lirst is between the (inebrada del INIai* (as the head stream of the Cnpica is called) and the Naj)i})i, where the Bic de Ando is estimated at only 500 ft. elevation. The second, further north, is between the Chnparador and the Ilingador, the lowest summit level being 947*44 ft. The third, between the tJnrador and the Salaqni, has an elevation of lOOGft. The height of this chain inland of Ardita l^oint is about bOOOft. The most conspicuous summits which it presents are Cerro del Za))o (the Mountain of the Toad), half-way between Garachine and J^ortof Pines; the Peak of Espave, S. of the latter; and Jananb* and the l^yramid, inland of Cape Corrientes. At some ])oints the mountains come down epute close to the shore, but generally there is a narrow belt of low land along the coast ; and, at the mouths of the San Juan and other large I'ivers, there are swampy deltas submerged in the rainy season. Nowhere, how- ever, do many miles intervene between the shore and the high land. The other branch of the Cordillera runs across to the N.E. towards the Atrato, separating the lower course of that river from the head of the Tuyra. From a point only a few miles distant from the Tarena mouth of the Atrato it follows the curved direction of the Atlantic coast, running parallel to it, at the distance of from two to five miles, as far as Cape San Bias, where it enters the Isthmus of Panama. The high range between the sources of the Tuyra and the Atrato valley is the Sierra de Maly, which sends off some spurs, called the Cacarica hills, that approach the west bank of the Atrato, coming down nearly as far as the lagoon on the Cacarica river just above its mouth. Between the head-waters of the Paya, a tributary of the Tuyra, and the Arquia, which falls into Cano Tarena, the west or main channel of the Atrato, near its mouth, is Chacargoon, or Tagargona, mountain, in which there is said to be an abundance of very fine gold-dust, called by the Indians aasites. North of it is Chistata mountain, in which there is a great waterfall. Be- tween the Atrato mouth and Cape Tiburon the Cordillera takes the name of Sierra do Estola, and presents the peaks of Cande- laria, Tarena, Gandi, and Pico de Cabo, or Tiburon. Inland of Carreto harbour is the Peak of Carreto, and N.W. of it is the break in the Cordillera, which will be noticed hereafter as affording great facilities for the construction of a ship-canal. * All extinct volcano in Clioco. ISTHMUS OP DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 57 Inland of Sassardi Point the Cordillera appears suddenly to terminate, and a new chain to arise a little behind its extremity. From thence to Cape San Bias it presents some notable peaks, which may serve as marks for the various anchorages within the islets and cays forming the Archipelago of the Mulatas. They are named Navagandi, Putrigandi, Kweetee or Mosquitos, Bio Monos, Playon Chico, Playon Grande (two peaks), Concepcion (four), Cerro Meseta, inland of Rio Azucar, La Orqueta, and another, inland of Rio Diablo, Rio Mangles Peak, or Cerro Gordo, and Carti, all of which, except Meseta and La Orqueta, are inland of the mouths of rivers of the same names. Close to San Bias Point it is 2300 ft. high. From Cape San Bias, where the Isthmus of Panama com- mences, to Portobello, a distance of 45 miles, the coast runs westward, the only inhabited places on it being the hamlets of Culebra, Palenque, and Nombre de Dios, founded by Don Diego de Nicuesa; these have an aggregate population of about 150 negroes, who are descendants of Cimarrones, or Spanish maroons. The Cordillera in this part of the Isthmus presents the peaks of Saxino, Nombre de Dios, and Capira. A little west of Portobello, it becomes broken into a series of oblong ridges and conical hills, having their bases skirted by plains. Inland of Navy Bay and Chagres its continuity can no longer be traced, the hills thereabouts being isolated and de- tached, and only from 200 to 400 feet in height. The ravines which separate them are but little elevated above the general level of the country, and are intersected by streams ; and imme- diately inland of Navy Bay is the great Mindi swamp, across which the Panama Railroad was constructed. A few miles west of Chagres the hills become connected, and the Cordillera, gradually becoming more elevated, rises to a great height in Yeraguas and Chiriqui, where it forms an elevated plateau or table-land, called La Mesa, the highest summits of which are Mount Chiriqui, 11,266, and Mont Blanc, 11,740 ft. high. From thence it declines towards Costa Rica. Rivers. The Isthmus abounds in rivers, the number of which, exclu- sive of the small periodical streams, cannot fall short of 200. In the rainy season every mile of land is intersected by a flowing stream, which carries off the surplus water. In the time of the heaviest rains the rivers rush along with irresistible force, bear- ing along with them great rafts of bamboos, trunks of trees with the branches on them, and islands of floating grass. Those opening on the Atlantic coast of Darien, from theTarena mouth 58 ISTITMUB OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. of tlie Atrato to Cape San Bias, aretlic Tarciia (nn iM(le])cn(l(*nt river), Tutuinati, Trijw^andi, Gandi, l^innlolo, Miel, Aiiacliu- cuna, IMalaliazai, Carreto, Aglatuinati, Aglnseni(jua, a consider- able river of unknown name that falls into ( 'aledoina harbour, the Sassardi, Navagandi, Butrigandi, Tivs Bocas, Kweetee, or ^Mosquitos, Zandjogandi, Cocos, Jhtgandi, Monos, Blayon (dnco, IMajon Grande, Conce])cion, Azucai’, Diablo, jMangles, ^lacol- lita, Carti or Cedar, Carti Chico, iSIandinga, and Cidata. Those falling into the Bacilic from Cruces I’oint to (jlarachine Point are — the Cupica, Corredor, Paracuchichi, Jurador, and Pinas. Ijctween Punta Brava and the mouth of the Che])o, the GulF of Panama receives the Buenaventura, Bernado, Orado, Ti'ini- dad, JManjue, Chiman, Bocafuerte, Hondo, Manglar, iMiiestra, Oquendo, Ikasigua, Lagartos, cl Gricgo, Centinela, and Santa Cruz. Off Buenaventura mouth are the Paralloncs Ingleses rocks; and inland of Hondo mouth are Column, Thumb, and Asses’ Ears Peaks. Off the Chepo is Che})illo Island, and off the Cliiman are Mahagucy and iMagucy Islands. Seasons. The seasons are the rainy and the dry. The rains commence with the new moon, in April, and continue seven or eight months until the end of November or December. In the district of Biruquete (the extreme south of Darien) and in Choco, they are ju’olonged for ten or even eleven months. Slight at first, the rain gradually increases, and is fully established at the end of ]May, when it falls in torrents, accompanied with terrific bursts of thunder and flashes of lightning. In June, July, and August there is sometimes a heavy shower every day for several successive days. The air is loaded with moisture, and mists with calms or variable winds prevail. Although the tem]3erature seldom rises above 87° Fahr., still, perspiration being impeded, the atmosphere feels extremely hot and close. In the height of the rainy season, when the sun is at its greatest northern declination, the rains are suspended, and for nearly a week after the 20th of June the sun shines with the greatest sjilendour, and the sky becomes clear and serene. No instance is known of irregidarity in the recurrence of this sin- gidar and unexplained break in the ordinary course of the season. The same phenomenon occurs in Demerara, Venezuela, ;ind probably in all the north of South America, within Hum- boldt’s zone of constant ])rccipitation.” This period of dry weather is called el vevanito de San Jaan^ or the little summer of St.John, because it commences on the 21st of June, St. John’s- ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 59 day, wliicli is kept as a festival of great social enjoyment through- out Spanish America. It may be observed, en passant, that a custom, evidently of Druidical origin, prevails amongst Celtic nations of lighting bonfires on the tops of the mountains on the niglit of the 20th of June. Towards the end of November or December the rains di- minish in frequency, the clouds begin to disperse, and, with the commencement of the new year, the N.W. wind sets in. An im- mediate change ensues, the air becomes more pure and refreshing, the sun shines brilliantly, the sky becomes blue, not a cloud is to be seen, and the climate displays all its tropical beauties. The heat, although greater, ranging between 75° and 94°, is less felt, as the atmosphere is almost free from moisture. The almost vertical rays of the sun are then very powerful, the rise of the thermometer to 124°, when exposed at noon to their full in- fluence, l^eing no uncommon phenomenon. Some precise information regarding the amount of the rainfall on the Isthmus has probably been communicated to the Smith- sonian Institute at Washington by Dr. Quakenbosch, of Aspin- wall, the physician to the Panama Railroad Company, who received a set of meteorological instruments from that body in November, 1862. On the Isthmus the days and nights are always of nearly equal length, the sun rising about 6 A.M., and setting about 6 P.M. Climate. The Isthmus, being so near the equator and having so vast an extent of forest and uncultivated land and so great a rainfall, has, naturally, a hot and moist climate. Nevertheless, with the exception of a few localities, it may be regarded as being healthy, and more favourable to the constitution of the Caucasian race than that of most intertropical countries. The mouths of rivers which have deltas, inundated or drowned lands in their vicinity — as those of the Atrato and the Chagres — are unhealthy. So are Portobello and Aspinwall, owing to the swampy nature of the soil in their neighbourhood. In such places remittent fevers, of a type much milder than the yellow fever, occasionally attack Europeans and North Americans, but seldom prove fatal. Where the ground is elevated a few feet above the level of the sea, and there are no swamps, no endemic exists, except the intermittent fever, which prevails all over South and North America, and even in Canada. It is much milder than in the West Indies, or even in the Western States, and is by no means obstinate. The cold stage is generally either entirely wanting, or passes off in a momentary chill, whilst in the Demerara GO ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE STUP CANAL. a, "lie tlicrc is frequently a rigour of four liours’ (liii’atiou. The liot stage seldom lasts more than foiu’ hours, or the s^Yeating stage more than two. The usual form is the tertian, wliich recurs every second day, the jiatient heing well on the day hetweeu every two attacks, ddie (jiiotidian, in Avhich there is an attack every day, and the quartan, in which the paroxysm comes oil every third day, are rare. The attacks are few in nnmher, and ])rol)ably the average may be only live or six. The coin- ])laint yields readily to suljdiatc of quinine,* the ctHcacyof which is much increased by administering the tincture of ses(|uichloride of iron, or steel drops, in combination with it. It is quite possible, however, for a jicrson to live on the isthmus for months, or even years, without ever suffering from an attack of fever. Colonel Jjloyd states that the family of the British consul resided four years in Panama without an hour’s sickness; and Lloyd and Fahnark Avcrc seventeen months on the isthmus, during the ivliole of the time exposed to the utmost rigour of the sun and rain, yet they escaped with entire im- punity. The comparative healthiness of the Isthmus may be owing to the great quantity of rain that falls washing away the decom- posing vegetable matter, and absorbing the morbific gases evolved; whilst the rivers rapidly carry off the surjilus water, and prevent it from lodging and forming stagnant pools. The equa- bility of the temperature, Avhich is not subject to great vicissi- tudes or sudden changes, the range of the thermometer being within narrow^ limits, never falling below 75° (on the loivlands), and rarely rising above 95°, also contributes to the healthiness of the climate. Negroes sometimes suffer from slight cutaneous diseases, but elephantiasis Arahica^ or Barbadoes leg,” is not so common as in other parts of New Granada. The true leprosy (lepra Groecorum), Avhich is common enough in Carthagena and Demerara, in both of which there are lazarettoesf for patients afflicted with that loathsome disease, does not seem exist on the Isthmus. El coto^ or goitre — the enlargement of the glands of the neck, so common on the high mountains of New Granada — is unknown on the Isthmus. * Bebeerine, the aetivc prineiple cxtraet.ed from the seeds and bark of Neetaiidra llodioci, tlie Greeulieart or Sipiii, of Demerara, Is also a powerful anti-])eriodic. The tree belongs to the class and order Dodecandria Mono- gynia, and tlic family Lauraceiu. t On Ticrra ILmba, near the former, and at Accawccny Creek, rcmcroou lliver, in the latter. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 61 The Foeest. The Isthmus of Darien is covered throughout -with a dense and trackless forest, extending from the summits of the highest mountains to the very edge of the sea, and broken only by the courses of the rivers. This renders it impossible to see more than a few yards ahead, and constitutes the greatest difficulty the explorer has to contend with. The trees grow in a soil of great depth, and of such amazing fertility that it would serve for manure for other lands. They are of all sizes, from 30 to 150 ft. in height, and have between them a multitude of shrubs and a close undergrowth of herbaceous plants. The trees sup- port numerous trailing vines and creepers, known by the names of vehucos, lianas, nibbees (in Demerara), and bushropes (in the West Indies). These ascend to their tops and fall in matted festoons, forming a perpendicular wall of foliage, which would delight the eye of an artist, but would totally impede the opera- tions of the surveyor. Orchidem and other parasitic plants, in great numbers and variety of form, cling to tlieir trunks, en- circling them with flowers of every hue. Of palms, the most abundant are the troolies (Manicaria saccifera), itas or morichis (Mauritia flexuosa), and other fan palms, vernacularly known as guagaras^ which occupy the greater part of the space between the tall trees. Another palm very common is the corozo Colorado, sillico, or hone palm (Elais melanococca), which yields an oil identical with the palm oil of commerce, the produce of its African congener, Elais Guineensis. The principal timber trees are cedar (Idea altissima) ; mahogany (Swietenia mahogani) ; lignum vitae, or guayacan (Guaiacum officinale) ; silk-cotton (Bombax ceiba) ; espave (Anacardium rhinocarpus) ; bamboo (Bambusa arundinata) ; bullet tree (Mi- musops sp.) ; crabwood (Carapa Guianensis) ; ebony (Diospyros sp.) ; hobo (Spondias lutea) ; iron wood (Ybera pnterana) ; laurel (Cordia gerascanthus) ; locust, carob, or algarrobo (Hy- mengea courbaril) ; mora (Mora excelsa) ; quiebra hacha, or break- axe (Hymensea pentaphylla) ; quira (Platymiscium polysta- chyum) ; Tonquin-bean tree (Coumourouma odorata) ; and a very durable wood called yaya. The quipo tree is also very com- mon : it grows to a height of 70 or 80 ft., perfectly straight, and has no branches except at the top ; the bark is very thin, and the wood quite white and extremely hard ; it is, perhaps, the caoba of Spanish and the bastard mahogany of English wood- cutters. Monkeys, perezas, or sloths, dantas, machos del monte, or tapirs, a small deer like the wirribocerra of Mexico, the sayno. G2 ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. liavall, cafuclii, warrco, or wliitc-lippcd ])eccari (Dicotylcs la])iatus), and tlic tatal)ro, or collared })cccari (Dicotyles tor- qnatus), coiiejos, or rabbits, and s(|uirj’els are plentiful. Amongst the birds are flamingos, or curri-curris, ])arrots, j)igeons, hum- ming-birds, and three kinds of wild turkey of large size, viz., the giiam, giian, pava del monte, or crested wild turkey (Penelope cristata) ; the powhi, or crested curassow (Craalector), and tlic powhi de piedra ("Ourax pauxi). The Istitimus oh Canton of Dahten. This Isthmus, whicli was at one time a separate province, was afterwards reduced to the status of a canton of the ])rovince of Panama, which it continued to be until the 2nd of June, 1840, when, in consequence of the representations of Anselmo Ihneda, the Governor of Panama, it was constituted a territory, under a prefect with a salary of 1500 dollars a year. On the 7th of August, 1847, its boundaries were fixed as already given. By another decree, dated Bogota, June 22nd, 1850, it was again reduced to the status of a canton, under a jefe politico, or chief of police, with a salary of 500 dollars per annum. Its length is about 210 miles, its greatest breadth 90, and its narrowest 2 :>art, from Chepo mouth to Mandinga Bay, 27 miles. South Darien. The following was the population of the South of Darien for the years 1822, 1843, and 1851 : — 1822. 1813. 1851. Yavisa, the capital 341 332 287 Santa Maria . . 245 204 145 Cliapigana . . . 162 296 268 Pinogana . . . 146 142 164 Tucuti .... 113 155 106 Pichichi^ . . . 100 abandoned. Molineca . . . 35 78 77 Cana .... 30 abandoned. Garachine . . . • • • • . • 162 Chimanf . . . ... 276 1172 1207 1485 * Ficliiclii, where there was a fort, was on the west bank of the Chu- ([uanaqua, between its mouth and Yavisa. A negro, named Mareellino, who was alive in 1849, was the last survivor of its former inhabitants. I Chirnari, at tlie mouth of the river Chiman, in the Gulf of Panama, although ill Darien, is under the jurisdiction of the canton of Taboga. ISTHMUS OP DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 63 Biruquete. The coast of tlie extreme south of Darien, from Garachine to Cupica Bay, and the Cordillera inland of it, were formerly called Biruquete, and, about thirty years ago, constituted a district, under the jurisdiction of a corregidor, with the title of the Oorregimiento of Jurador; but of late years this has been completely neglected. The only settlements in it are a few huts at the Jurador moutli and on the Nerqua and Chupipi, twelve huts at Paracuchichi mouth, inhabited by negroes and samboes from Panama and a few Jamaica men, and a little hamlet at Cupica. It was once the resort of deserters, qimar- rones, or runaway slaves, and fugitive criminals from Panama. It was to this coast that the Indians of the north of Darien directed Pizarro, telling him to go to Biruquete (probably mean- ing “ the southern country ”) to search for gold ; and it was from the wrong application of the name of Biru that that of Peru was derived. On the Biru, which was then governed by the cacique Biru, was the village the inhabitants of which he named Pueblo Quemado or burnt people. He gave the river the name of Rio de Hambre, or hunger river, and it is now called the Jurador. Biruquete formerly included all the country from the Atrato and the San J uan to the Pacific, but the town of the Noanama Indians on the San Juan ; but all to the south of Cupica is now in the province of Chocd. Noanama, the people of which still retain their own language, has a population of 3510. Biruquete was visited successively by Vasco Nunez, Andagoya, Pizarro, and Almagro. It includes the lines for a ship canal from the Atrato and Truando to the Paracuchichi, and from the Atrato and Napipi to the Cupica, which were surveyed, but found to be impracticable. By some this narrow tract between the Atrato and the Pacific is called the Isthmus of Chocd. River Tuyea.* The Tuyra, Rio Grande, or Santa Maria, is the largest of the rivers of Darien, the Atrato being included in the province of Chocd. It traverses the greatest part of the space between the Atrato and the Gulf of San Miguel, running from E.S.E. to W.N.W. Its head-waters are separated from the valley of the Atrato by the Sierra de Maly, and the Cerro del Espiritu Santo. f ^ It is worthy of note that Tuyra is the name of the devil in the languages of both the Darien and Caribisce Indians, by whieli tribes he was formerly worshipped. f Its entire course may be estimated at 94 miles. G4 ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. Inside of Boca Chica and Boca Grande, tlie months by wlilcli it discharges itself into Gulf of San Miguel, it forms a magni- ficent estuary extending eight miles up, witli an average width of three miles, and great deptli of water. Into this fall the Savana on the N. and the Seteganti* on the S. Inside Boca Cliica and opposite tlie Savana mouth, there is a settlement, called La Palma, established in 1851 by Marcado and Damian Gonzales. The former was a native of Chocb, whose father had been canoe-man to Captain Cochrane on his journey in Chocb in 1824. Seven miles above Boca Chica is the mouth of the Seteganti, an uninhabited river : about a century ago, thei’e was an Indian village there. On the bank of this river a negro of Chapigana was murdered in 1849 by some person, who chopped him in the back of the head with a machete or bush cutlass, just as he was about to jump across it, he having j)re- viously flung his bundle over to the opposite bank. Chapigana Village. Two miles above Seteganti mouth is the village of Chapigana, which Vasco Nunez de Balboa made his head-quarters after the discovery of the Pacific. The ]^eople are all negroes, and are governed by two corregidors. Mr. Andrew Ilossack, commonly called Don Andres, an Inverness man, resided there for many years, and carried on wood-cutting and boat-building, having always kept a sufficient number of hands at work, by means of a system by which he held many of the men of the village in bondage. It consisted in giving large credit to all comers for aguardiente, anisado (a liquor impregnated with oil of aniseed, like the rachi of the Greeks), brandy, tobacco, &c., and then making a sudden demand for payment, and obtaining a decree obliging them to pay off the debt in labour, with the alternative of the stocks, if recusant. The same system was carried on in Molineca by Gregorio, and in Pinogana by Requero. It is pro- bably common in that part of South America, for when, in 1832, the government of Equador sent a body of political offenders and convicts to Charles Island, one of the Galapagos, under the governorship of Don Jose Vilamil, that gentleman opened a store in which, in lieu of money, he demanded for his goods mortgages on the crops grown by the settlers ; but the plan ended badly, for, three years afterwards, the people exasperated at his rapacity chopped him down with their machetes. During the author’s visit to Darien in 1849 and 1850 his movements were free, owing to the absence at that time of * Tills word is compounded of Sete^ a species of willow that grows there- abouts, f/any a village, aud tij a river. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 65 Don Andres ; but in 1851 that gentleman caused his detention at Chapigana for three weeks, by secretly forbidding the people to hire him a canoe. For a few years he was in partnership with another Inverness man, named Kobert Nelson,* but the latter left Darien several years ago. A Portuguese, named Jose Maria Troncoso, but commonly called Don Pepe el Niopo (the European), wlio had been a sailor in a slaver trading between St. Paul de Loando and Brazil, resides there, and carries most of the traffic between Chapigana and Panama in his bongo. The village is partly situated on a very small swamp, which is almost the only one in Darien ; close behind it is a well of good water, and behind that a hill with a running stream. At this place, on a hillock just behind Hossack’s house, is a ruined fort ; there are also ruins of forts on the top of Boca Chica Island, and at Beal de Santa Maria, and Yavisa. La Marea Eiver. Six miles higher up, also on the south bank, is the mouth of La Marea, at the head of which the Spaniards once worked a gold mine. Dr. Lebreton, a physician of Panama, M. le Boi, and M. Plellert, who went up to its head, state that gold exists in large quantities in the pozos or wells in which it has its sources. Bio Balsas opens two miles higher up. On separate branches of it are the village of Tucuti and the hamlet of Camoganti, near which there are placeres or gold washings. This river was so named by Vasco Nunez because he constructed rafts on it. Chuquanaqua Biver. Sixteen miles above Bio Balsas, or thirty-three miles above Boca Chica, the Chuquanaqua opens on the N. bank of the Tuyra, and is about 120 ft. wide at its mouth. This very tortuous river rises somewhere to the W. of Navagandi mountain, not far from the sources of the Chepo, which runs in the opposite direction. From its head it has a S. by E. course to Yavisa, where it bends to the N.W. for three miles to the Tuyra. The distance from its head to Yavisa, in a direct line, is 47 miles : by the windings of the river, the reaches of which approach every point of the compass, it must be considerably over 100 miles. The distance from Sucubti mouth to Yavisa, in a straight line, is thirty-eight miles. From its mouth to the first falls, eighteen miles above Yavisa, it has a pretty uniform depth of three fathoms, and an average width of 70 ft. Higher up it is much obstructed by ledges, bars, and rocks. The principal affluents on the W. are the Izquinti, Artuganti, La Paz, Meteti, Not the Robert Nelson who, witli Mr. Kennisb, guided Commander Prevost. F GO ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. Chev'miciiii, wliicli rise in tlie ridi^e l)et\veeii it and tlie Savana. Tlie tributaries, Avliicli ()])en on its E. bank, rise from tlie Eacilic slojie of the Cordillera that runs close to the Atlantic coast. From its source down they are named the Ushicapanti, Arquiati, Chieti, Moreti, Sucubti, the united streams of the Chueti and Tidmganti, Ucurganti, Tiujiiesa, Ticliibucua, Tupisa, and Yavisa. From the head of the Chu([uanaqua there is a trail to Cuiquiiiupti, an affluent of the Cauasas, which falls into the upper ])art of the Chepo. The Uslucapanti was reached by Commander JTevost, of II.M.S. Virago^ on his misguided and unsuccessfid attempt to cross the Isthmus from December 20, 1853, to January 7, 1854.* At the close of the last century there was a small settlement on the Arquiati, the cacique of which was named Juan de Dios Alcedo; but the Indians, according to their custom, abandoned it when it was found out by the S})aniards.f The Moreti and Sucubti will be referred to in the account of the canal line, which will follow the bed of the latter. From the Chueti, which falls into the Chuquaiiaqua, eleven miles S.S.E. of the Sucubti, there is a scarcely recognisable trail across the Cordillera to a point high up the Aglatumati, that falls into Caledonia Bay, on the Atlantic. The author once crossed in that line, but found the Cordillera there to be higher than between the Sucubti and the Aglatumati. This is the so-called Pass of Tubuganti, which is thus noticed by AVilliam Patterson in his Second Proposals In our passage by land from Caledonia Harbour’ (he means Port Escoces) we have six leagues of very good way to a place called Swetee ” (Chueti) ; from Swetee to Tubugantee we have between two and three leagues, not so passable, by reason of the windings of the river which must often be passed and repassed. At Tubugantee there are ten feet of high water, and so not less in the river till it falls into the Gulf of Ballona” (San Miguel). This we com- monly call the Pass of Tubugantee.” Yaratuba, a place about 20 miles S.AV . of F ort St. Andrew, where a skirmish took place on the 15th of February, 1700, be- tween the Scotch colonists under Captain Campbell, of Finab, and a body of negroes, mulattoes and Indians, sent from Panama and * lloss, Dr., II.M.S. Virago, llcpori of the Exploring Party sent to cross the Tstliiuus of Darien, in the Vanama Herald, January, 185 i<; and in a ])ainp]ilet entitled “ Over Darien. — llcports of the Mismanaged Darien Expe- dition.” 1 I'his was, liowever, more probably another Ai'cpiiati, one of the southern tributaries of the Tuyra, ISTHMUS OP DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 67 Santa Maria up the Cliuquanaqua to reinforce Gen. Don Juan Pimienta, the Governor of Carthagena, who was then besieging Fort St. Andrew, was probably on the Tubuganti. Indians pass from Tuquesa to Pito, and from Tupisa to Gandi or Acanti, in the Gulf of Darien, in four days. They do not travel to the south of Tupisa ; nor do the Granadians venture to trespass north of the Yavisa. With the exception of the Grana- dian town of Yavisa, the entire course of the Cliuquanaqua itself is supposed to be uninhabited, the few settlements of the Indians being on some of its branches. Yavisa,*" the cabecera or capital of the canton, and residence of the Jefe Politico, Don Manuel Borbua, is situated on a penin- sula formed by a bend of the Cliuquanaqua opposite the mouth of the Yavisa. The houses are of bamboo, thatched with palm leaves. It has a fort in good preservation. There are a few cattle in the small plain on which the town is built, and which is cleared to the foot of the mountain behind it. This plain is 50 ft. or more above the river, the banks of which are there quite precipitous. Walking rapidly up and down one very dark night endeavouring to cool himself during the oppressive heat that precedes a thunder-storm in that climate, the author approached too near the edge of the bank and toppled over, striking his side, in falling, against a projecting point. The river being flooded, he barely touched the bottom, and swam out safely, the splash made by the fall having frightened the alligators away. lie met there Mascareiio and Pedro Louriano Garvez, two very old residents, who were born at Fuerte del Principe, on the Savana, and were brought away by their fathers, who were soldiers there, when it was abandoned in 1790. They said that there used to be sometimes 400 soldiers at Principe, and that on its abandonment its garrison, consisting of 150 men, was sent to Yavisa. There is not one soldier now in Yavisa. Dr. Nicolas Pereira Gamba, a lawyer, now of Bogota, was prefect of the territory from 1846 to 1848, when he was suc- ceeded by Don Antonio Baraya, of Bogota, who remained until 1850, when Darien became a canton, upon which he was ap- pointed governor of the new province of Azuero. That gentle- man, with the view of assisting the author in his explorations towards the Atlantic coast, gave him a letter of which the fol- lowing is a translation ; but his kind intentions were of no avail, as the natives had such a dread of the Indians that he could not prevail on any of them to accompany him, and had to proceed alone as before : ^ This Indian word signifies a maiden.’’ F 2 G8 ISTHMUS OF DAIIIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. “ Yavisa, January 9, 1850. ^M)EAii Sir, — Dr. Edward Cidleii proceeds to your town witli tlic view of continuing liis explorations. 1 heg you will he kind enough to procure liiin the men that he re([ui]’es for the con- tinuance of his journey, whom he will pay for their services. I hope you have no news. I remain your most attentive servant, Antonio Daiiaya. “ The Corregidor of Moliiieca.” Heal* * * § de Santa IVIahia is situated on the Tuyra, just above the mouth of the Pirre, which has a very short course from a liigli mountain called Cerro Pirre, and falls into the Tuyra a little above the Chuquanaqua, hut on the opposite or S. hank. The Governor of Panama sent to this village for confinement thirty of the men from ] Liverpool, who took Jhn’tohello, in 1819, under the patriot or Colomhian General, Gregor M‘Gregor,f and who were afterwards made prisoners upon the retaking of that place by Santa Cruz and Alessandro Lores. Three of them were killed here, and Colonel liafter and another at Yavisa. An old Indian woman of Pinogana, who was present Avhen Rafter and his companion were shot by Corporal Rincon, besought him to spare them, crying out por el amor de Dios, no les mata,” (for the love of God, don’t kill them). Don jManuel Gonzales, a native of Spain, who was in Portobello when it was retaken, said that most of the prisoners were con- fined in the large housed opposite the puerta de tierra or land gate of Panama, which latter has been thrown down by the Railroad Company ; and that one night, a musket rack having fallen down and alarmed the guard, they fired and killed several of them. Below the Pirre is the site of the old town, which was taken by the Buccaneers in 1680,§ on wdiich occasion they found only 3 cwt. of the gold of Cana, the rest having just been shipped to Panama. It w^as again sacked in 1685, 1702, and 1712, by the Buccaneers. In 1724 and 1750 the Indians massacred the inhabitants. * Ileal means “ a camp and also a silver coin, worth i^tli of a dollar, or 5d. ; but the real of Spain is only half the size and value of that of South America, being only of a dollar : the adjective real signifies “royal.” f He afterwards became Cacique of Poyais, in the Mosquito territory, and raised a large sum in London for the colonisation of Poyais on bonds signed by himself alone. I I'his house l)clongcd to Gonzales, and afterwards to his son-in-law, Don tfuan Feraud, a Prcnchman. § When taken in 1G80 by Coxon, Harris, and Swan, Santa Maria had a garrison of 200 men, but was defended only by palisades. ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 69 Molineca, up to which the tide reaches,* is about four miles above Santa Maria. From the other bank of the Tuyra there is a bush-path, about three miles long, to the bank of the Chuquanaqua opposite Yavisa. Along this path the Cedron {Simaha cedron, Planch, Simarubacem), said to be the best antidote against snake-bites, grows plentifully; and close to the same path, the author saw, in one day, great numbers of snakes assembled together in three diderent places. PiNOGANA. Four miles above Molineca is Pinogana, the last inhabited place on the Tuyra. The population consists of 164 civilised Indians and Samboes (half Indians and half negroes). The distance from Boca Chica to Pinogana is forty-one miles, and the journey can be accomplished in two tides. During the ebb tide it is usual to tie the boat or canoe to a tree on the bank. Going down with the ebb, the passage can be made in one tide. The Tuyra, above the confluence of the Chuquanaqua with it, receives on the same, or north bank, the Huanacati, Yapes. Pucro (about fifteen miles above the Chuquanaqua), Paya, Ma- tumaganti, Punusa, Tapanaca, and Nique. Of these nothing is known except that there are a few Indians high up the Pucro and the Paya. The author learned from the Indians that there are two ways of crossing the Cordillera from the Pucro, and two from the Paya. Pucro is a corruption of Pucurru, the Indian name of the balsas or raft-wood tree {Ochroma lagopus), which, like the silk-cotton tree (Bombax ceiba), and the huge baobab (Adansonia digitata), belongs to the Linngean class and order Monadelphia Polyandria, and to the suborder Bombaceas of the natural family Sterculiacese. The following are the passes : 1. One day’s journey up the Pucro is the mouth of the Tapaliza, and two hours up the latter is that of the Mazaquia : from thence a journey of an hour and a half by land leads to Parcaparca, a stream which falls into the Tiperri, a branch of the Paya. From Tiperri mouth to the head of the Paya is one day’s journey, and from the latter the Cordillera is ascended in four hours. At its foot on the other side is the head of the Arquia, in the course of which is the lagoon of Tigre, one day’s journey from the Tarena channel of the Atrato, into which, six leagues above its mouth, the Arquia falls. 2. One day’s journey up the Tapaliza is the mouth of the Apeyac ; in one day up the latter the Cordillera is reached, and can be crossed in one day to the head of the Tigre, which falls into the lagoon on the Arquia. 3. The Paya falls into the Tuyra, one day’s journey * But tlie tide flows tliere only for one or two hours. 70 TSTTTMTTS OF FAFIFN AND TITE SITTF CANAL. above tliG Pucro. It is two days from its moiitli to its licad, one (lay tlieiice to Cliacargoon or Tngar^ona Aronntniii, one day to its foot on tlie otlier side, one day tlience to the Arcjuia, and one day d(3wn tlie latter to tlie Atrato. The liead streams of tlie Paya are tlie Tracuna, and Ucub(|nin. In Cliacai’^oon there is a rivniet, called Tiyaco, which contains abundance of a very line gold dust that the Indians call aasites. Nortli of Chacai- goon is Ghistata Mountain which has a great waterfall. 4. One day on foot up the bank of the Tuggule, a branch of tlu; Paya, fartlier to the south or right ; one day across the Cordillera to the head of the Yo ; and three days down that river to the Atrato, one day’s jcnirney above its mouth. AboA^e Molineca, on the same, or south liank, the rivers Clara, Uruti, Aru/a and Arquiati, Siluro, Cupe and Jjieliza, Papa and Piedras, Grande, Escucha Kuidos (hear the noises), Viejo (old), Ijimon, and Cana fall into the Tuyra. They are all totally un- inhabited, as well as all the country from the south bank of the Tuyra to the Pacific. In 171() the settlements in the south of Darien Avere : 1. Santa Cruz de Cana, Avhere there was a large population of Spaniards, negroes, and Indians engaged in gold mining. 2. La Concep- cion de Sabalo. 3. San Miguel de Tayecua. 4. San Domingo de Balsas. 5. Santa Maria. 6. San Jeronimo de Yavisa, a Joc- ivhia or mission. 7. San Enrique de Capeti, or the sleepy. 8. Santa Cruz de Pucro. 9. San Juan de Tacaracuna, and IMatarnati, doctrinas named after liills in the vicinity. 10. Se- teganti, an Indian village, the inhabitants of which, although under subjection to the Spaniards, Avere not baptised. Some time after 1740 the Spaniards had rancherias, or collections of huts, at Nuestra Seitora del Rosario, on the Congo, and on the riA^ers Zahalos, Balsas, Uron, Tapanaca, Pucro, Paparos (phea- sants), Tuquesa, Tupisa and Yavisa, and at Chapigana. About the end of the last century, the fort of Real de Santa Maria Avas garrisoned by thirty-seven soldiers, and had six pedreros, or small cannons. On the Pirre there Avere thirteen Indian fami- lies, instructed by a Dominican priest ; and at Molineca tAventy- three families and a priest. Ayuca, four leagues above Moli- neca, and Yapeti, three turns or reaches higher up the Tuyra, Avere uninhabited. At the sources of the Cupeti, the mouth of which is seven turns aboA^e that of the Yapeti, Avere the Paparos Indians, Avho held no communication Avith the others, and Avere su]q)Osed to be a mixed race of Indians and negroes, and to consist of eighty families. Seven turns above Cupeti, the river Y])eliza o])ens. On the Cupe, one of the tAvo streams that form it, there Avas a Jesuit mission consisting of forty Indian families; and at the junction of the tAVO, the Spaniards once had a military ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 71 post, but the Indians killed all the soldiers. From the embarca- dero or landing-place on the Ypeliza, three days’ journey above its mouth, it was half a day’s journey by land to Cana : at the landing-place there were three Indian families. At Cana there was a fort with a sergeant and eight soldiers. The inhabitants, most of whom were upwards of fifty years of age, were engaged in mining. In 1780, the entire population of South Darien was 1339. Before that time, the Indians, with the exception of a few families that remained in Pinogana, had completely aban- doned it. North Darien. The Atlantic coast and the country for eight or ten miles iidand is very sparsely inhabited by the Darien, San Bias, or Mandinga Indians, who call themselves Tooleh* — a word signi- fying people.” This tribe was never subdued by the Spaniards, and its independence was recognised by the Government of New Granada about the year 1843.t The Darien Indians have always opposed every attempt to penetrate their country, or even to land on the coast. They do not allow any official or citizen of New Granada to reside in their territory, nor do they permit any of the people of the Granadian villages in the south to cross over towards the Atlantic, to which side they strictly confine themselves, claiming no part of the Isthmus south of the upper courses of the Chepo and Chuquanaqua. So severe have they been on trespassers that, in 1850, they killed four negroes whom they found fishing too high up the Chiman ; and two years later they killed five negroes whom they caught hunting within their territory. They ahvays bore great animosity to the Spaniards, and used to make it a point to kill any of that nation that happened to fall into their hands. They were very friendly of old to the Buccaneers, whose allies they were in many incur- sions against the Spaniards. They are at present very friendly to the English and Americans, hut nevertheless do not permit them to land, on the coast. As soon as a vessel anchors it is boarded by the traders, who bring off their produce themselves, and do not allow the captain or crew to land. They carry on a considerable trade in cocoa-nuts, cocoa-nut oil, cocoa (Theobroma cacao), cotton and grass hammocks, and canoes of calli-calli, a red wood like cedar, which withstands the attacks of all insects, and bears wear and tear better than mahogany. They also dispose of large quantities of carey, careta, or tortoise-shell, caoutchouc, and * But those dwelling on the tributaries of the Chuquanaqua are called Cunas or Chucunas. f Tbe independence of the Goahiros, who live inland of Bio La Hacha, was recognised at the same time. 72 ISTHMUS OF UAHTEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. tagiia, aiith, or vegetable ivory, wlilcli is tlie liard ;ill)iiiniiioiis kernel of Pliytelephas inacrocarpa, a (lia'uious steinless ])alni.* Their small settlements are situated, at great distanees from one another, at the months of the rivers ^landinga, Carti (hiico, ( ’arti, or cedar, llio Diahlo, llio Azucar, Concepcion, l^Iayon (irandc*, Playon Chico, Rio ]\Ionos, Pitgandi, Kweetce, or Mosrpntos, Pii- trigandi, Navagandi, Sassardi, Carreto, Gandi, Tripogandi, d'utu- mati, and Tarena, which fall into the Atlantic from N.W. to S.E., or from Cape San Plas to the Atrato. Their settlements inland arc near the sources of the Chepo, Uslueapanti, INIoreti, Asnati, Sucuhti, Chueti, Tuhuganti, Ucurganti, Tuquesa, Tu])isa, Pucro, and Paya, which rise on the Pacific sloj)C of the Cordillera. There are also the villages of Agla and Arquia, three or four miles from the Atlantic. During the season in which they strike the hawkshill turtle (Chelone imhricata)t a few huts are occu])icd hy them on some of the coral cays with which the coast is fringed. Allowing a population of 100 souls, on an average, for each of the nineteen coast villages, and also for Agla and Anpiia, and 00 soids for each of the twelve inland settlements, the total }) 0 ])ulation would he 2800, which is prohahly above rather than under the actual number at jrresent ; hut, in 1747, Don Joaquin Valcarcel de Miranda, Governor of Darien, estimated the popu- lation at 5000 families. From Cape San Bias to the Atrato not one single patch of cultivated or cleared land is to he seen, either on the coast or the mountains. At Mandinga, in 1852, the chief was John Bull. It must he observed that two or three of the traders in each settlement adopt English or Spanish names, as the Indians have so great a reluctance to tell their own names, that, when one of tliem is asked, ^Mki peynooka?” (What’s your name?), he invariably replies, Nooka chuli ” (I have no name), meaning, perhaps, no adopted name. Carti Chico is a small place, three miles east of Mandinga. Carti, or cedar river, in Mandinga Bay, nine miles east of Mandinga River, was the residence of the oldest chief, Caldgwa, who was about 100 years of age. The traders were Vicuna, William, and Tom Dadd. Vicuna, John Bull, and Campbell, who lived at Yantopoo, an island opposite Carti, each of whom was nearly 100 years of age, were present at the signing of the treaty of peace with the Spaniards, in 1787, at * A full account of this interesting tribe, with a copious vocabulary of their language, will l)e found in the TransacMons of the Ethnological Society of London. New Series. Vol. vi., Murray, 1868. f Tills is tlie species most in request for its carapace, or dorsal buckler, the horny plates of which arc known as tortoise-shell. ISTHMUS OF DAETEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 73 Caledonia Harbour and Portobello. John Bull was baptised at Portobello, the chief of police there being his godfather. Camp- bell, notwithstanding his great age, was able to walk about, and was quite clear in his intellect. He asked the author to pre- scribe for his daughter, and wanted some vaccine lymph, which he sent him from Navy Bay. Carti is the largest of the settle- ments, and may have a population of 200. Bio Diablo, or devil river, the largest village next to Carti, has about forty huts. The chief was named Napa, and the traders were Story and Jack Bragg. At Azucar, or sugar river, the chief man was Crosby. Playon Grande had about thirty huts. The traders were William Shephard and Tom Taylor. The sea-beacli is four miles long, and lined with cocoa-nut trees, which grow along the coast all the way from thence to Putrigandi. Putrigandi had about twenty-five huts. The trader there was Julian or William, who was very friendly and desirous of learnino; a little English. He also wished to have names mven to his sons, and seemed to take much interest in the account the author gave him of the Indians of Guiana and Venezuela. On the way from Sassardi to this place, the boat the author was in was followed by a large canoe with ten paddlers and some men armed with muskets, who fired several volleys. As they were pulling directly towards him, he thought they might be coming to kill him on account of the propositions he had made about a canal across the Isthmus ; but, upon asking one of the Indians in the boat what they were firing for, he replied, quenchaqua Tule tumati poorkweesa” (one great Indian is dead), which explained the matter. Soon afterwards the canoe steered into Navagandi. There are a few huts on a sandy spot on the E. bank of the Navagandi or Mona, and six or seven miles up the river is a settlement. Manchineel trees are abundant in the vicinity. Sassardi, at the N.W. extremity of Caledonia Harbour and the channel of Sassardi had eighteen huts and about fifty inhabitants. The principal trader was Denis, who had great influence, and caused Gisborne and Forde to be arrested and sent back to their vessel the day after they landed in June, 1852. A fortnight afterwards the author arrived in Caledonia Harbour and sent a message to him, whereupon he came down with about forty men, and told him of the landing of Gisborne and Forde with two sailors. The author endeavoured to get his consent to the survey of the route and the cutting of a canal, but he would not entertain the proposition, and bid him tell the Queen of England not to send any of her people to the coast. He was very friendly, however, called him aya nugueti” (good friend), and came in his boat to Sassardi, where he gave names to his 74 I.STTTMTJS OF FAFIEN ANT) TITE RITTP CANAL. two sons, wlioni lie ])roinisc‘(l to lot liiin take to Kurland on liis next visit. JIo ovon offorcd to i!;ivo liiin a passage in a oanoo to Navy I>ay, but afterwards said lie oonld not ii;ot ))addlors. 4 lie resnlt of several discussions on tlic canal (jnestion was that lie ])roniiscd to oiler no ojiposition if tlie old men of the otlu'r settlements consented to allow foi*eii»;ners to come and cut Ji canal ; and lie advised the author to call a formal meeting of the old men to consider the matter. »lohn Hull, the oldest man in the village, was then sick and could not be consnlled. At this time an American yacht, and a schooner from the Atrato, belonging to Fanstino, called in. When the expedition of 1854 ari’ived in (kdedonia Harbour, Denis acted as spokesman for the Indians, and gave permission to the engineers to survey the line, jiromising that they would not be molested, as he had jiromised Jdeutenant Strain, U.S.N., Avho landed two days before Gisborne’s arrival. Although he offered no ojiposition, and did all that was asked of him, Gisborne used to s])eak very harshly to him, and at last threatened to have him hanged. To this threat Denis made no rejily, but Sassardi village was immediately abandoned, and Denis was no longer to be seen. Soon afterwards, Gisborne and three others, accomj)anied by llobinson, the Secretary of the old chief of San Bias, and another Indian, wlio was the guide, left Caledonia for the Savana. They went first to Sucubti, which had been burned and abandoned upon Strain’s approaching it, fifteen days before their arrival. Then they proceeded to Moreti, where they were detained, by order of Denis, in the house of the very men who had murdered four sailors of Commander Prevost’s party five weeks before. Learning, fortunately in time, that Denis had arranged with the Chief of Moreti that Gisborne and party were to be murdered there, tlie author hastened to Sassardi, where he found all the houses completely empty and open, with the exception of the upper room in Denis’s house, the door of which w^as shut. Having shouted repeatedly, Denis at last came out, and in an angry voice asked what he wanted. Upon hearing the purport of his visit, Denis at once admitted that Gisborne and party were to be killed, and chuckled with satis- faction at the idea. After a long pow-wow, in which he dis- ])layed much cunning, the author succeeded in convincing him that his own safety depended uj)on countermanding his orders ; whereupon he whistled, and, m a few minutes, two Indians pulled over from the river, and Denis had a conversation with them, after which they went back. Denis then said that they would start at once for Moreti, which was three hours’ journey, to order the chief to let Gisborne go unharmed. Denis died in 18()1. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 75 Although the Sassardi people were friendly to Commander Parsons and his officers during their stay, they did not attempt to conceal their anxiety to get rid of them, and expressed much gratification when told they were about to depart. Caereto had about twenty huts, built of manicole palm stems, and thatched with troolie leaves. The native traders were Bolivar, Trueno (thunder), and Smith. Trueno had been in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, and spoke some words of English and Spanish. They said there was a small village a little inland. A young man of this village, named Jose Pio, had been brought up by a Granadian at Yavisa, but he was then absent. The Carreto people were more opposed than any others to the canal project, and were very sulky and surly. Smith scolded Pedro Ucros, a gentleman from Carthagena, who accompanied the author, and asked him why he did not travel in his own country. On the night of their arrival the Indians fired off pedreros at short intervals for two hours, the shots being answered from some place inland. This detonation seemed to be intended to frighten them away. During the expedition of 1854, when Colonel Codazzi, who was sent by the New Granada Government, with 200 soldiers and convicts to assist in the survey of the Darien Canal Line, encamped them on the beach of Caledonia Bay, at the mouth of the Aglatumati, the Carreto people sent almost daily messages to him, requesting him to take his men away. Codazzi, who was an Italian, was chief of the Chorographic Commission which was engaged in surveying the provinces of New Granada. As he was also part concessionaire of the privilege for a canal by the Atrato route, he did all he could to defeat the object of the Darien expedition, and strictly confined his men to their camp on the beach. He died at Bar- ranquilla, on the Magdalena, in 1859. It was from Carreto that Vasco Nunez sailed to Agla, in Caledonia Bay, whence he started for the Pacific. He had previously entered into a treaty of friendship with the cacique, whose daughter, Carreta,* he took for his wife. About fifty years ago it was the residence of Quebanna, who was esteemed the wisest of the Darien chiefs. The last chief was Jose Rosario. In Anachucuna Bay, there is a small village, where a man named Leon, whose father was a native of Cura 90 a, died in 1851. Tarena Village, at the mouth of the Tarena, a river a little west of the Tarena mouth of the Atrato, is probably built on the very site of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien, the first settle- ment founded in America. It was, and is still perhaps, the resi- * Careta, the Spanish word for tortoise-shell, was perhaps introduced from the Indian. 70 ISTHMUS OF DAllTEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. (lencG of Zapata (Slicpliard) tlic half Indian son of old Ca])taln fJolin Shephard, of Sjin »Iuan de Nicaragua. Tarcna is, v(‘ry likely, a corruption of Darien, which would seem to have heeii the ancient name of the Atrato, the main channel of which is now called Tarena. Perha])s in the Choed lanirua(rc, the Atrato is still called Darien. The Indian ]) 0 })ulation of the north hein^ 2800, and the Granadians of the south 1485, it follows that 4285 ])CO])le, most of whom are savages, occupy a country 210 miles long, with an average breadth of 50 miles, having a soil of amazing fertility, capable of yielding the most valuable ])roducts, and occu])ying a most commanding position for commerce, situated, as it is, be- tween the Atlantic and the Pacific, with magnificent harbours on each, and at only eight days’ steaming from New York and sixteen from England. This seems strange, ])articularly when we reflect that the narrowest part of the neck of land between the two oceans is there ; and that there, also, the first settlement was made after the discovery of America — Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien having been the first town built on the con- tinent of America. Nevertheless, there is yet neither path, track, trail, nor line of transmit of any kind across the Isthmus of Darien. THE ATLANTIC COAST. The Gulf of Darien or Uraba. Punta Caribanathe northernmost point of the Gulf of Darien is low, covered with trees, and surrounded by rocks lying close to it. It is easily recognised because from it the coast trends to the S. to form the gulf, and Cerro del Aguila or Eagle’s Hill is near it. This hills lies in Lat. 8° 37' 10'' N., Long. 76° 50' W., and from it Cape Tiburon, the west point of the gulf bears W. (N. 84° W.), 29 miles distant. Aguila Hill, though only of moderate height, is remarkable in consequence of its being insu- lated in the centre of low land. Pounces and garnets* have been found in it. The gulf has, then, its entrance between Caribana point, on the E., and Cape Tiburon (shark), on the AY., and extends 46 miles to the south from a line drawn between them. Its E. side, for a few miles S. of Caribana point, is in the province of Carthagena, in the State of Bolivar ; the rest of that side is in the province of Chocb, in the State of Antioquia. Its W. side, from the Atrato to Cape Tiburon, is in Darien. All its E. and S. coasts to the Bay of Candelaria * Garnet is a silicate of aluiniiiiiini, magnesium, and iron. When cut efi cahochon, that is, of a boss shape, it is called carbuncle. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 77 offer safe anchorage at every season ; but the rest of it to Cape Tiburon is very wild in the season of the breezes, and without any shelter except for small vessels ; hut, in the season of calms^ light breezes, and variable winds or vendavales, one may anchor in any part of the gulf without risk of being incommoded by either wind or sea. Nearly 5-J- miles S.S.W. -J W. (S. 35° W.) from Caribana Point is North Arenas Point, which forms with the south point a low front 2 miles in extent, the bearing between them being S. 19° E. and N. 19° W. These points form the W. dyke of Aguila Lagoon, which extends from thence 5|- miles, and from N. to S. 3 miles, with several low islets in it. This lagoon commences at the S. extremity of Aguila Hill. From Arenas Point southward the coast trends towards the eastward for 5^ miles to the Rio Salado, and thus forms a tongue of sand extending out to sea, which, although it is low, has sufficient water near it, and may be run along at less than a mile. From Rio Salado the coast trends nearly S.S.E. It is all low land, with hillocks at intervals. The depth on the bank all along it is so regular, and the bottom so clean, that it may be coasted without any other care than attention to the hand-lead. To the S. from Cayman Point and Hill, which are 14 miles from Rio Salado, the shores on both sides are low and swampy, and continue so as far as the delta of the Atrato. At the outermost part of the delta, 25 miles to the southward of Arenas Point, the gulf is contracted to a width of only 4 miles. From Rio Salado to the mouth of the Suriquilla, in the bottom of the gulf, the rivers Ycoquillo, Uraba,* Cayman Viejo, Cayman Nuevo, Civilo, Cope, Turbo, Guadalito, Kara- cuarando or Seteguillegandi,t Micura, and Leon fall into it. All these have their sources in the spurs of the Antioquian mountains which approach the east side of the gulf. The Leon or Guacuba is a considerable river, whose principal tributaries are the Cun, Van, Cano Grande, Ipenegue, Aruy, Chueti, and Carebro. It has a very long course, its upper portion, named Papagana, rising in the Cordillera westward of that part of the valley of the Cauca between Medellin and Santa Fe de Antioquia. At Turbo mouth, due E. of the Cano Coquito mouth of the Atrato, is a village of about twelve huts raised on stilts to defend them from the water, mud, and insects, and nearly * On the banks of the Uraba are the ruins of a settlement, which was perhaps San Sebastian, founded by Ojeda in 1510. f The former is its name in the language of the Chocb, the latter in that of the Darien Indians. In the former language, the termination do or dor, in the latter, or di, signifies a river. 78 ISTHMUS OU DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. buried in forest. The people employ themselves in collectiim caoutchouc, which is abundant in the neighbourhood, and of V'hicli Mr. Dean, an English resident, cx])orts a large cpiantity. Near Turbo grows the Lana or wool tree. A ])ortion of the roots of this remarkable tree is exposed for 10 or 12 ft. above the ground, covering a circular sj)ace of about 20 ft. in diameter. The trunk is 6 ft. in diameter at its lower extremity, and rises to a great height. The bark is often jmnetured by insects, and the seeds of various plants settle in the wood and germinate ; the tree then presents the singular appearance of giving growth to several varieties of leaves and flowers. Don Antonio Gago, who was commissioned by the King of S])aiu to examine the mines of Darien, mentions in his re])ort, in 1788, the existence of a silver mine on the rivulet (fpiebrada) Namacpiilla, which rises not far from Cayman, and falls into the gulf near Turbo. The Delta of the Athato. From a little west of the river Surlquilla, which falls into the Bay of Candelaria in the southernmost part of the gulf, the delta, through which the great river Atrato or Darien disembogues, extends to the N.W. The Bay of Candelaria is bordered by the low and swampy land at the mouths of the river, and bears from the point and IMorro, or round hillock, of Cayman about S.W., at the distance of 12 miles. For sailing along all this coast of the bottom of the gulf, from Point Cayman, on the E., to the Bay of Cande- laria, on the W., there is no necessity for other directions than that of attending to the lead, nor is there any danger, for a ship may be anchored wherever it may be convenient or necessary. The principal or only object for navigating the gulf is to approach or enter the mouth of the Atrato, which affords great facilities for introducing into the interior the imports, and with- drawing from thence the exports of the province of Choco,* of which it is the main artery and the only highway. Although this river opens into Candelaria Bay by thirteen mouths, only * The province of Choco had, in 1851, a population of 43,619, consisting of negroes and civilised Indians, who, unlike their neighbours in Darien, are very inoffensive. There is a considerable export of gold dust from it ; and, in 1841, the imports included 10,000 bales from England. Quibdb, or Cithara, the capital, in hit. 5° 37' N., is 2° 29' 30 W. of Bogota, and had, in 1851, a popu- lation of 8471. It is a miserable collection of mud huts, thatched with pmm leaves, built in a swampy situation, and propped up on stilts to defend them from llie mud, water, and insects. It stretches about half a mile along the W. bank of the river, and has some trade with Carthageua, Loiica on the Sinu, and Novita on the San Juan. ISTHMUS OF HAKIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 79 eiglit of them are navigable for boats or launches ; and, of them all, the Faysan Chico, or Caiio Coquito, offers the greatest advantages, because, when anchored in the Bay, vessels will fiad shelter from the sea, and be near the channel by which their freights are to be carried inland. This arm of the river has 3 ft. of water on its bar, and the tides rise only 2 ft. throughout the gulf. The coast of the Bay of Candelaria is so very low that the greater part of it is inundated even at low water, and bordered with mangroves, reeds, and rushes, so that only the N.W. part appears dry. The entrance of the bay, from the N.W. to the S.E. point, where the little Faysaii falls into it, is about two miles in width ; but there is a sandbank which extends out to a mile to S.E. of the N.W. point, and straightens it to scarce a mile. This shoal also stretches off from the S.E. point, but only to 1^ cable’s length. The clear space of good anchorage is about If mile each way. From the N.W. point of Candelaria Bay the coast continues low and covered with mangroves for nearly five miles, N. 10° W. to Bevesa Point ; and thence W.N.W. seven miles to Tarena Cays. On all this coast the shallow bank, thrown up by the waters from the mouths, and consisting of the softest oaze, extends one mile outwards, and is exposed to constant changes. It is therefore necessary to keep at two miles distance from the coast. Bevesa, or Chocd, Point forms a curve that presents a fine anchorage, well sheltered from the north winds and breezes. About one-third of the distance from this point towards Tarena Cays is Boca Tarena, the princi})al mouth of the Atrato, which is so exposed to the breezes that commerce is more conveniently caiTied on by means of the little Faysan. Inland and south of Tarena Cays is the Peak of Tarena, on the range of the Cordillera, which runs jiarallel to the coast only a few miles iidand, and presents from N. to S. the peaks named Candelaria, Tarena, Gandi, and Pico de Cabo, or de Tiburon, inland of that cape. From Tarena Cays the coast runs about N.W. by N. (N. 68° W) ten miles to the Bolanderos Islets, and is high, with a few islets lying along it. The first of these, named Tutu- mati, is a group of three, about half a mile from the coast, and clean all round. Succeeding them is another named Tambor. To the west of Tambor Islet the coast bends a little inwards, and forms Puerto Escondido, or hidden harbour, which will admit only small vessels. About three miles from Escondido Harbour is Bolandero Islet, of moderate size, having around it several smaller ones, with sufficiently deep water round them ; these do not lie more than three-quarters of a mile from the shore. 80 ISTHMUS OF DAIUEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. At tliree miles N.W. Ijy W. ^ W. from Great Ijolanderos is Piton Jslet, clean all round, between wliicli and the coast there is a channel half a mile wide. From thence, at the distance of six miles W.N.W. ^ W., is Tri])o^andi Point, forming the F. ])oint of a beachy bay, named Ensenada dc Tri])oo;andi. From this ])oint the coast continues about N.N.AV. ^ \V. 1 ’ mile to the point of the river Gandi, which, with the former, forms the Ibiy of Estola or Gandi, where the rivers so named disendjo^ne. In this vicinity an island suddenly rose in 1858, as the author was informed the year after by Don Ignacio Pombo, the barbour- master at Carthagena. About (ii miles N.N.^y. of Ti’ij)ogandi Point lies Tonel Islet, very clean, with deej) water; it is one long mile from the coast. From this islet to Ca])e Tibnron the distance is miles N.W. -} AY. All this coast from Tarena Cays to Cape Tibnron is high and ])recipitous, with deep water off it ; but it is very wild in the season of the breezes, for wbich reason it is most prudent to avoid it during that season, and to keep on the E. side of the gulf, as it not only affords security and the accommodation of anchorage in every part, but there is no inconvenience on that side from the sea ; it is also much more easy for working to windward, so that much time may be saved by keeping to it. Cape Tiburon is the N.AY. boundary of tlie gulf. It is rocky, high, and scarped, and projects out in a N.N.E. direction, forming an isthmus, on the S. and AA^. sides of which are two little har- bours. The first is so narrow as to be of little importance ; the second, named Miel Harbour, is larger, and has good holding ground ; its greatest depth is from 12 to 13 fathoms, on sand and clay. From Cape Tiburon a sandy beach extends 13 miles AY.N.AAh to the point at the foot of the Peak of Carreto, forming Anachu- cuna Bay, which is about 2-J miles deep. At its N. end, about two miles S.E. of Carreto Point, is the little harbour of Escon- dido, fit for small vessels only. Cakeeto Harbour. The Peak and Point of Carreto, 13 miles W.N.W. (N. 62° W.) of Cape Tiburon, are at the eastern side of the Harbour of Carreto, the western part being formed by a cluster of islets of various sizes. Between them, at the distance of 1-|- mile, is the widest part, the narrowest being one mile. This harbour is of a semicircular form, and falls in about a mile, with a depth of from 3J to 8^ fathoms. Being exposed to the heavy seas thrown in by the N.E. breezes, it is of use only in the season of light winds, d'o the north of this harbour, at the distance of a long ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 81 mile, there are two little shoals, the Bajos de Carreto, near each other, bearing N.E. and S.W., with 6 fathoms on them on rocky- bottom, and near them from 20 to 25 fathoms. With fresh breezes, the sea breaks over them. At 7 miles N. 48° W. from Carreto Point and Peak is Punta Escoces. On this bearing there are clusters of islets of different sizes, extending out to N.N.E. a long mile from Punta de las Isletas. From Carreto to the latter the coast is high and scarped, but from thence to Point Escoces, 3 miles N.W., it is lower, and has a beach. Point Escoces is tlie extremity of a narrow neck of land, about 2 miles in length in a N.W. direction, which forms the N.E. side of Port Escoces. Port Escoces, Caledonia Bay, Caledonia Harbour, and the Channel of Sassardi will be noticed in the account of the Darien Canal Line. The Isle of Pines. Its S.E. extremity bears N. 5° W. from the Fronton of Sas- sardi at the distance of 2 miles. In the space between it and the coast there is a channel of two cables’ length in width at the narrowest part, with from 1 J to 5 fathoms of water. Off its W. side is the Cienaga or Lagoon of Navagandi, the mouth of which is shut in by reefs. The Isle of Pines is high, with a hill extending along it, on which rise two remarkable points covered with trees. Its greatest extent lies N.W. by N. and S.E. by S. one mile, and its greatest breadth is three-quarters of a mile. Its N.E. and S.E. sides are scarped and bordered by reefs very near the shore. Its N.E. point lies in Lat. 9° 1' 30 N., and Long. 77° 45' 20" W. On its south side there is a little rill of good water which runs down a gully and into a small basin, but it is so near the shore that an unusual rise of tide washes away the saiid, and the sea flows into it. Excellent firewood may be cut to the eastward of the watering-place, but care must be taken not to cut the man- chineel ivQQ^Iiippoinane mancinella^Eup)liorhiaceo 2 )^^^\\\(^\ abounds there and is poisonous. Drake visited this island on the 23rd of July, 1572, and found there two frigates from Nombre de Dios taking in timber. The negroes in those vessels informed him that some soldiers were expected from Panama for the defence of the town against the Ciniarrones, or runaway slaves. The Mulatas, or San Blas Archipelago. Two and a half miles N. by W. from the north end of the Isle of Pines is Pajaros, or Bird Island, which is low, narrow, covered G 82 ISTHMUS OF DABIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. M’itli bnisliwood, and surrounded l)y reefs, liaviu^ 7 and 8 fatliouis, on rocky bottom, cdose to tlieui. At tliis island com- mences the extensive Arcliipclago of the Mulatas, or Samballas (San Jllas), com])oscd of islets, cays, shoals, .and reefs, which, sweeping round to the N.W., at a coiisidei’able distance from the maiidand, terminate off San Bias ]k)int, .about 80 miles distant. The c.ays arc low, nearly flat, sandy, and thickly wooded. They lie in clusters, having navigJible channels be- t^veen them, leading to secure and sheltered anchorages within them all along the shore. Some of them h.avc s])iMngs of good water, and convenient spots for loading and careening, and the fishing and turtling around them are excellent. Great nund)ers of lime-trees grow on them, and ])roducc large fruit ; so that sailors navigating those w.atcrs need not fear the scurvy. The main shore is full of sandy b.ays, with many streams running into them. The largest group is the Ilolamles, wdiich is about 7 miles in extent from E. to W. The north side of the reef wdiich bounds this group is fi’om 8 to 10 miles from the coast, and the cays .are separated from those immediately adja- cent to the mainland by a clear opening of 3 miles wide. A vessel being 3 miles N. of P.ajaros, and steering N.W. ^ W. for 25 miles, then W. by N. ^ N. for 39 miles, will ])ass outside all the cays, and will be 4 or 5 miles to the N. of the easternmost of the Holandes group. Great attention to the lead is, how- ever, required, for it is suspected that many banks lie outside the cays. The channels formed by these cays arc named Pinos, Mos- quitos, Kweeti, Zambogandi, Punta Brava, Cocos, Rio Monos, Ratones, Playon Grande, Puyadas, Arebalo, Mangles, Moron, Caobos, Holandes, Chichime, and San Bias. Canal de Holandes is the largest : the least depth in it is 15 fathoms, on a sandy bottom, and its width is 2| miles. Its entrance is bounded on the S.W. by Icacos Cay, which is dry, and covered with high icacos (cocoa-plum) trees.* The islets and cays of this archipelago present a most singular and beautiful appearance when viewed from sea, and the cap- tains of the West India mail steamers plying between Carthagena and Aspinwall would afford their passengers a rich treat by running within sight of them. Gulf of San Blas. Eighteen miles W. by S. ^ S. of the easternmost cays of the * Cn/sohalamis hicaco, .'i tree bcloiigliif^ to the Ciysohal.anace.'c, a natural family allied to tlic llosaoea). It bears a pulpy fruit the size of a plum. The root, bark, and leaves arc used medicinally. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 83 Holandes group is San Bias Point, in lat. 9^ 34' 36", long. 79° 0' 30". It is low, and skirted by a reef to the distance of 1| mile, on which are several cays, the easternmost called Cay Frances. In a S.W. and W. direction from Cay Frances there are twelve more islets, upon some of which are small fishing establishments ; and to the E. of them are many banks and islands, forming part of the Mulatas archipelago, and having channels between them. Point San Bias forms the N.E. boundary of the Gulf of San Bias, the mouth of which extends N. and S. 6 miles, to the anchorage of Mandinga. From that line the gulf has a width of 6 miles to the W. Its shores are low, and bordered by mangroves. The anchorage of Mandinga and also that of Bahia Inglesa, or English Bay, in its S.W. part, are well sheltered, and have depth sufficient for any class of vessels. To run into the gulf, the most commodious passages are the Channel of Chichime, 3 miles wide, and that of San Bias, If miles wide. Quite close to’^ the Point, the Cordillera rises to the height of 2300 ft. This point is the boundary, on the Atlantic side, between the Isthmus of Darien and the Isthmus of Panama, and the settlements of the Darien Indians do not extend west of it. Distances. Miles. From the most eastern mouth of the Atrato to Cape Tiburoii . 46 Cape Tiburon to Point Escoces 19 Escoces Point to Sassardi Point 9 Sassardi Point to Cape San Bias 86 Length of the Atlantic Coast of Darien . .160 Latitudes and Longitudes. * Lat. N. Long. W. Lat. N. Long. W. Caribana Point Turbo, on the E. side of the Gulf of 1 8° 37' 30" 76" 52' 55" Darien, due E. of the Cano Coquito f mouth of the Atrato (Lieutenant I • 8 4 56-2 76 41 50-7 Craven, 1858) . . . . ' Cape Tiburon ..... 8 41 30 77 21 30 Scorpion Cay, Caledonia Harbour 1 (Parsons, 1854) . . . . ) ■ 8 54 52 77 42 25 Cape San Bias 9 34 36 79 0 30 Current. Along the Atlantic coast of the Isthmus from Greytown a current is very sensibly felt, following the curvature of the land towards the Gulf of Darien. This easterly current extends from 20 to 30 miles from the land, and its rate is from 1 to 2 84 LSTIT]\rUS OF DAIIIEN AND TITE SHIP CANAL. miles an hour. Close off the entrance of Portohello it runs from 1-^ to even ?> knots an hour in the rainy season. In (yaledonia Harbour the tidal streams are overcome l)y a current wliich s(‘ts through the channel of Sassardi to the S.E., at about J^rd of a mile per hour. Surveys. The survey of the coast from the Atrato to the Chngres, by Captain Don Jojiquin Francisco Fidalgo, was published by the Hydrographic Office at Madrid, in 1817. The Atrato had ])rc- viously been surveyed by Don Vincente de Talledo y Kivera, and the coast from Carthagena to Venezuela by Ca])tain Don Cosine de Churruca. The charts of the harbours are contained in the Portoplano de las Antillas. In 1828, Lieutenant W. Ed. Fiott, ll.N., visited the coast of the isthmus in the schooner Renegade^ but does not appear to have made any survey. The coast near Chagres was surveyed, in 1828, by Captain H. Forster, of H.M.S. Chanticleer, who was drowned in 1831 in Chagres river. In 1854, Port Escoces, Caledonia Harbour, and the Channel of Sassardi were surveyed by Commander Parsons, of H.M.S. Scorpion. The longitudes on all the charts of the coast from the Atrato to Cape San Bias, except on that of Caledonia Harbour, by Parsons, are wrong, and a new survey is much wanted. The Coral Cays. The coral of the cays and islands is exceedingly beautiful. When living in their natural element the various sorts of coral are covered with a gelatinous matter of the finest colours ; and, looking out of a boat on a sunny day on the groves of coral, sea- fans, sponges, and polypi, with their brilliant colours dancing on the unsteady water, and gaudy fish gliding about among their branches, one can imagine himself looking through some bril- liant kaleidoscope. Immense lobsters, conchs, and whelks the size of a man’s fist are found in abundance at these coral cays, and also a huge crab about tlie size of a soup-plate, with a lovely pink shell spotted with white. Hermit crabs roam at night over these little islands, disturbing the weary boatmen by biting their toes and demolishing any food left in the pots; during the day they all disappear, being snugly hid under tufts of grass. In the quiet bays, protected by the coral reefs from the trembling brcidsiers, flocks of grave pelicans sail about on the water, with their heads thrown back, and their long bills resting on their breasts, or tumble headlong from the air among the shoals of s])rats, driving them in a silvery shower out of the water. The predaceous frigate-bird pursues the sno^vy sea-gull, ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 85 screaming round the cay, and amusing the spectator with its manoeuvres to escape, till, wearied out, it lets fall the coveted fish, which is seized by the other before it reaches the water. Along the glaring sandy beach parties of snipes and sand-pipers scamper along in eager pursuit of their prey, which is washed up in the rolls of seaweed by the little waves. Now and then as a boat passes, yellow w'ater-snakes will suddenly erect their heads and show their fangs with an angry hissing. Occasionally, shoals of grampus enliven the scene, splashing, leaping, and hunting one another with the greatest liveliness. The white circle of breakers on the reef, the dark blue sea outside, the calm bay with its back-ground of rich evergreen foliage, and the light feathery clouds drifting over with the steady trade wind, form a coup cC oeil only to be imagined in the dark and stormy north. The Pacific Coast. Inside Cruces Point, in lat. 6° 32', is Cupica Bay, into which fall the rivers Cacique and Cupica. This harbour has deep water and is well sheltered, except from S. winds. Farther north is Cape Marzo, the Morro Quemado of Pizarro, a bold, bluff headland, which projects southwards and forms a bay, called Bahia Octavia, or Aguacate. Above Cape Marzo, the rivers Corredor, Paracuchichi, or Bocorochichi,* and Jurador, fall into a bay, called Puerto Quemado, the northern limit of which is Ardita Point. The mouth of the Paracuchichi was proposed as the terminus of the exploded Atrato and Truando canal route; and the Jurador was the river which Pizarro visited on his first expedition in search of Peru. It was called by the Indians, Biru; but he gave it the name of Rio de Hambre, or Hunger river, and called the natives Pueblo Que- mado or burnt people. The misapplication of the name Biru which probably meant South, gave rise to that of Peru. All the way from Cape Marzo to Ardita Point, the beach is skirted with innumerable cocoa-nut trees. As these are found on the Darien coast, in places where no human beings or traces of them are to be seen, that would seem to be their native country. From Ardita to Cocalito and Pinas Points, the coast is bold and rocky. Inside of Piiias Point is the little harbour of Puerto Pinas, which is very commodious and sheltered from the winds ; but its entrance is narrow and obstructed by three small islands. * Many Indian languages agree in the repetition of tlie same syllable in a word. Coeoraboora, Cabacaboora, and Chichiriviehi, in tlie language of the Warrows of Essequibo and Venezuela; and Bellibellero, in that of the Caribs of Guiana, must here suffice for examples. ISTHMUS OF UATUEN AND TTTE STflF CANAL. 8n Its position is marked very distinctly ])y several detaclied rocks outside. It is 2^ miles wide at its mouth, and extends inwards 5 miles. A small river, wliicli is lial)lc to sudden freshets, falls into it. It is closely hemmed in hy mountains densely wooded, the land beliind rising to a lieiglit of from 500 to lOOO ft., whilst the more distant ranges appear to reach an altitude of from 3000 to 5000 ft. This harbour used to afford a refuge to the pirates of the South Seas, and in it John Cliperton, who infested them at the beginning of the seventeenth century, careened his vessels. ]^etween Pinas and Garachine Points are those of Caracoles and Escarpado. Near the latter is Puerto Escondido, or Hidden Harbour, very inaccessible, with a narrow entrance, through which there rushes a furious tidal current, causing a heavy swell and formidable surf. Garachine Point, the south point of the entrance of the Gulf of San Miguel, and the S. E. point of the Gulf of Panama, is bold and easily distinguished from sea. The tide runs 5^ knots an hour off it, rises 3 fathoms, and ebbs and flows N. E. and S. W. There is very deep water off it, and inside of it is a large and well sheltered bay, where ships may careen. In the Pacific, 15 miles true W. from it, is Trollope Rock, sunk 2 ft., and extending from 8° 6' to 8° 7' N., and from 78° 37' 45" to 78° 38' 15". The temperature of this coast is from 84° to 86° F. The rain-fall is very great, and heavy vapours hang over the heights. The depth of water all along it is considerable, being from 50 to 60 fathoms at a short distance from land. All the coast from Cape Marzo to Garachine is in Biruquete. The country below Garachine was once inhabited by the Ta- rabes Indians, a tribe now extinct. At present, there are scarcely any inhabitants from Garachine to Chirambira, at the mouth of the San Juan. At Paracuchichi there are twelve huts widely scattered, inhabited by some samboes and negroes from Panama and a few Jamaica men who settled there some years ago. At Cupica there is a hamlet, the houses of which are built on poles, and reached by ladders. An Indian there styles himself Alcalde. At Ardita Point, which was visited by Dr. Seemann, in H.M.S. Herald, no people were visible, although there were some canoes on the beach; but two negroes and four Indians came off the next day with a white flag. One of the latter, who called himself Alcalde of Jurador, had a stick with a silver knob : all the party were naked. The Gulf of San Miguel, the entrance of which is between Garachine Point on the S., and Punta Brava, on the N., will be described hereafter. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 87 The Gulf of Panama. The shore of the Gulf of Panama commences at Punta Brava, and runs thence in the shape of a bow to Punta Mala, the western point of its entrance, Garachine being the eastern. This great inlet of the Pacific is 105 miles across at its entrance, and extends inwards 75 miles. Near its east side are the Pearl Islands, so that it has two passages for entering. Navigators prefer the western during the rainy, and the eastern in the dry season. The latter has, however, in its fair-way the disadvan- tage of the shoal of San Jose, in the middle of which Captain Kellett discovered a rocky patch with less than 3 ft. of water on it.* A very remarkable tree, towering above all the others on Galera Island, bears from it N. 57° 40' W. (true) distant 9 miles. The Gulf of Panama is remarkable for baffling winds, occasional squalls, frequent and long calms, rains more of a drizzling kind than those that fall on land, opposing currents, ripples, freshes, and a general disturbance and irregular motion of tlie surface-water, owing, probably, to the meeting in it of the cold current from tlie Peruvian coast with the great Equa- torial counter-current. The autliorwas thirteen days beating out of it in 1849, in the whaling brig, Norman^ oi Nantucket, Captain Gardiner, bound for San Francisco. The Bay or Harbour of Panama, which is called Perico, is sheltered by the islands of Naos, Flamenco, Perico, Taboga, and Taboguilla. Ships of any burthen lie in it very safe under the lee of any of those islands, at the distance of leagues from the shore. It is, however, ill adapted for a packet station, as vessels of even less than 300 tons have to lie 2 miles to seaward of the city, and are obliged to discharge their cargoes into flat- bottomed boats. Though the anchorage is secure, it has hap- pened that all the ships lying there have been stranded. The tide rises and falls from 13 to 17 ft. at Panama. It is high water at Taboga, at full and change, at 3h. 16m. The greatest rise of tide there is 20 ft. Close to the shore at Panama are the Sulphur and Danaide rocks. Soon after the completion of the Panama Railroad, a pier, 450 ft. long, was constructed at the terminus, and steam-tugs were substituted for the lighters pre- viously used for transportation between ship and shore. Currents. During strong N. winds, the cold current which follows the direction of the coast of Peru, after passing Cape Blanco, sets over to the N.W. and W.N.W. towards the Galapagos Islands, * Seemann, Dr. Bertliold. Narrative of the Yoyage of H.M.S. Herald. Reeve and Co. 88 T8TIIMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. and causes some singular effects tlicrc from its struggle 'with the warm waters of the Pacific. Near that Archipelago, the shores of which abound in animal life, and the tra(*t ol' sea near whicJi ■was the greatest whaling station in the Pacific, some remarkable veins of currents may be observed. Ca])tain Fitzroy says that, when the Jhac^le was there in October, 1887, the surface water on one side of Albemarle Island was found to have a tcm])eratiire of 80° F., whilst on the other it was less than fi0°, a surj)rising difference in the Pacific, where the variations of tem])erature are usually withiu narrow limits. The temperature of this current being too low for the zoophytes exjdains the absence of coral reefs round the Gala])agos. The current is not, however, at all times totally deflected at Cape Blanco; for it sometimes sets round the coast to the N. to the Pearl Islands, and affords great facilities for working up to the anchorage off Panama. Between the parallels of 2(3° S. and 24° N. there is a current to the W., known as the great Ecjuatorial current, embracing the whole tract of the Pacific from a little S. of the tro]>ic of Capricorn to a little N. of the tropic of Cancer, with the exce})tion of that between 5° and 10° N. In the latter space, which is the zone of the Ecjuatorial calms between the trade winds, that extend across the entire breadth of the Pacific, there is a great belt of water having a current setting with considerable velocity to the E., towards the biglit of the isthmus, and called by Mr. Findlay* the Equatorial Counter-current. Thus the current system seems to centre in the Gidf of Panama. The latter current and that from the coast of Peru, which set into the Gulf, probably find their way out round Punta Mala and along the coast of Veraguas, just as the current which sets into the Golden Horn of Constantinople from the Bosphorus runs out round Seraglio Point into the Sea of Marmora. Distances. Miles. Erom Cruces Poiub Ciipica Bay, to Cape Marzo . . 16 Corredor nioutli 24 Paracuchiclii do 29 Jurador do. 35 Punta Pinas 701- Caracoles Point 82 Escarpado do 106 Garacliine do. . . . . . • • _ • HO Punta Brava, round the shores of the Gulf of San Miguel 160 Chiinan mouth 186 Cliepo mouth 219 Panama • .246 * Findlay, A. G., Esq. On Currents. Journal of the Iloyal Geographical Society, vol. xxiii. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 89 Latitudes and Longitudes. Lat. N. Long. W. Cape Marzo . G° 50' 77° 40' Corredor mouth . . G 5G Paracucliiclii do. . 7 2 30" 77 41 Jurador do. . 7 G 77 45 Garachine Point . . 8 G 78 22 30" Chepillo Island . . 8 59 40 79 7 40 Panama . 8 5G 79 31 2 Variations of the Compass in 1848. In Long. 78° W. Lat. 4° 10' N. 7° 40' E. 5 10 7 35 G 15 7 30 81 7 10 7 40 Surveys. A portion of tins coast was surveyed from 1837 to 1839 by Sir Edward Belclier, in Her Majesty’s ships Sulphur and Starling. The remainder was finished from 1846 to 1849 by Commander Wood, of the Pandora., and Captain Kellett, of the Herald, by whom the whole coast was explored from the San Juan to Punta Burica, the boundary between New Granada and Costa Bica. THE DAEIEN SHIP CANAL. PIistory of the Project. As the project of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Darien was brought before the public fifteen years ago, and then dropped, the first question that will be asked is, why has it lain in abeyance since then ? It must be premised then, that, on his return from a journey to the Sierra Nevada of California, in 1849, Dr. Cullen examined the shores of the Gulf of Panama and the Gulf of San Miguel with the object of finding a practi- cable entrance for a ship canal, and, continuing his researches, entered the river Savana, and discovered the route about to be described. In spite of most formidable and appalling difficulties, he made a more particular examination of it in each of the three following years. In 1852, a short reconnaissance was made at each side by Messrs. Gisborne and Forde, whom Messrs. Fox and Henderson and Mr. Thomas Brassey had sent out. In 1853, in consequence of their favourable report, the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company, of London, was formed. The directors were : Lord Wharncliffe, chairman ; J. Pemberton Heywood, Esq., deputy-chairman ; J. S. Brownrigg, Ch. 90 ISTHMUS OF HAIHEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. Brownell, T. K. Cram})ton, E. Cropper, »I. C. l^wart, G. D’Olier Gowan, W. I. Ilainlltoii, Lewis JI. llaslewood, II. T. IIo])e, lliii^li Ilornbj, Admiral C. B. ^loorsom, ('a])tain Mackiiiiioii, Iv.M., A. Montoya, Ilis Excellency P'rancisco de Riveiro, Ilis Ex- cellency Ezccpiiel Rojas, Melvil Wilson, Alex.ander Wilson, IMilner Gibson, M.P,, and Jkron Antoine Ivothscliild. The bankers were, ]\Iessrs. Ileywood, Kennards, ;nid Co. ; the solici- tors, Messrs. J. C. and 11. PTeslifield ; the olHcial auditor, tl. E. Coleman, Plsq. ; the secretary. Dr. Black; and the en^ineer-in- chief, Lionel Gisborne, C.E. The offices were at 3(5, Moorojite Street, and 8, New Street, S])i*inir Gardens. Soon after the formation of the company. Dr. Cullen a])plied for permission to go out to Darien three months before the engi- neers, in order to clear a l)ush-])ath along the line, so that they might have room to carry their instruments; but his recpiest was refused. He then ap])lied on two occasions, but with erpial ill success, for authority to act as guide to the ex])loring party, and to negotiate a treaty of friendship with the Indians. In December, 1853, a large staff of engineers, most amj)ly provided with money, instruments, and necessaries of all kinds, was sent out by the company to survey the line; and three British, a French, and an American ship of war were stationed in the harbours to assist them. However, very unfortunately for all concerned, six iveeks before their arrival on the coast of JJarien, Commander J. C. Provost landed on the Pacific side, and made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the Atlantic ; and, tivo clays before their arrival^ Lieutenant Strain, U.S.N., landed in Caledonia Bay, on the Atlantic side, with the intention of cross- ing over to the Pacific. Thus, instead of a single well-arranged plan for making an impartial and thorough examination of the route, there were three unconnected explorations in different and wrong directions, of which two were conducted without the use of compasses ! or even bush-knives ! ! and not one was brought to a conclusion. In each case, moreover, the commanders were guided by ^Gnlunteers,” who were agents sent to offer their gratuitous services by the opposition company, namely, the Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company, of New York, the promoters of which— -F. M. Kelley, Esq., George Law, Vander- bilt, &c. — proposed to cut a canal by the Atrato route, which Humboldt had recommended on the authority of the Biscayan pilot, Gogueneche. Thus, Commander Provost was guided by Messrs. Kennish and Nelson,'^ and Lieutenant Strain by Messrs. Avery and Hoss, Dr., II.M.S. Virago, llcport of the Expedition sent to cross tlie Istliinus of Darien. From this llcport, which was forwarded to the Director- General of the Medical Department of the Navy, and is ])nblished in “ Over ISTHMUS OF DAEIEH AND THE SHIP CANAL. 91 BoggSj of tlie Atrato Company, and also by Messrs. Holcomb, Winthrop, Forster, and Bird, of the Panama Railroad Company.^ Mr. Holcomb was the station-master at Aspinwall, Mr. Winthrop was nephew to Aspinwall, one of the contractors, and Mr. Forster was editor of the Aspimcall Courier — a newspa])er sup- ported by the Railroad Company. Lastly, Mr. Gisborne placed himself under the guidance of Colonel Augustin Codazzi, who, although in the service of the New Granada Government, as chief of the Chorographic Commission, was also father-in-law of Florentino Gonzales, a Doctor of Law, who, since the unfortu- nate fate of Seiior Cardenas in the Amazon, was sole concession- aire of the Atrato route. Codazzi was likewise an engineer of the Atrato Company, and had just sent to New York a most favourable report of their line. Although not one of the above gentlemen had ever before set foot on the Isthmus of Darien, and although Dr. Cullen accom- panied Mr. Gisborne, yet, as the directors had refused to give him any authority or position in the conduct of the expedition which had been sent out to promote a project that had originated with him, he was not permitted to interfere in any manner what- ever, and not only were his offers to act as guide rejected, but the course taken was directly opposite to that which he had pointed out.t The result was that the engineer-in-chief, in his Reportf to Lord Wharncliffe, dated Her Majesty’s ship Espiegle, Caledonia Harbour, April 4, 1854, stated that a tunnel 3 miles in length would be necessary, although the same Report concluded as follows : I am quite aware that, in now concluding my survey- ing operations, § there is a great deal of interesting information still wanting and that my examination of the Isthmus is not near so perfect as I had hoped to make it.” This, indeed, had been so manifest, that Commander Parsons, of Her Majesty’s surveying Darien/’ a canal would seem to be practicable even along the line tnken by Prevost — for Dr. Ross says that, from the highest point reached, estimated at 1200 to 1300 feet — “ we overlooked a deep valley, densely wooded and ru7i- ning m an easterly direction. It was supposed that it was through this valley the Atlantie had been seen from the tree.” The mountain they aseended was, perhaps, Putrigandi, and the valley may have been between it and Navagandi. Headley, Mr. J. T. Narrative of Strain’s Expedition, in Harper’s New York Magazine for Mareh, April, and May, 1855. f “Over Darien. Reports of the Mismanaged Darien Expedition, with Suggestions for a Survey by Competent Engineers, and an Exploration by Parties with Compasses.” London : Effingham Wilson, 1856. There is a copy in the British Museum. X This Report was never published. § This can only be regarded as a grandiloquent euphuism, or fagon deparler. There was no survey, nor even an exploration. 92 ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. ship Scorpion^ in a letter to Dr. Cullen, dated San tJuan de Nica- ragua, May 15, 1854, says, in allusion to Mr. (lishorne’s opinion as to the necessity for a tunnel : — ‘‘ Of course J shall not consider the matter thoroughly settled until further mireh. is niadcT* The same o])lnion of the iinpcrfect and ])artial charact(*r of the inspection of the country then made was ex])ressed hy Baron Ilumholdt, M. Malte-Brnir, M. Michel Chevalier, and Mr. T. C. Vincent, of New Park-street, Southwark, who had spent several months in Bogota examining the archives there in search of the accounts of the attempts made l)y the Si)aniards to open a road across Darien. More recently, I. Gerstenberg, Es([., F.R.G.S., in the discus- sion on Mr. Laurence Olijdiant’s pa})er On the Payano River,” read before the Royal Geographical Society on the 24th of A])ril, 18()5, said : The only route that I believe to he practi- cable is the Darien route. . . . Dr. Cullen and Commander Parsons have stated that there is a valley running through the main ridge to Caledonia Harbour. The only point to be settled is the existence of this valley, which subsequent explorers failed to find, because they did not wish to find, it^ owing, as I believe, to the jealousy of the Panama Railroad Company, and of the Concessionaires of the Atrato route, who had rival interests, and consequently did not desire that the transverse valley should be found. In the hydrographical map of Parsons’ ‘ Survey of Caledonia Harbour and Port Escoces,’ he gives several views of the Cordillera ; and View 3 clearly shows that the Cordillera at that point is not an uninterrupted chain, but is broken into two separate and distinct ridges, between which a valley may natu- rally be expected.” The above-mentioned report, however, arriving just at the outbreak of the war in the Crimea, determined the directors to dissolve the company, returning the shareholders their deposits without any deduction. The project, in consequence, fell to the ground, and has lain in abeyance ever since. It will be found, nevertheless, upon a survey being made by competent engineers, sincerely desirous of the success of the pro- ject, that, by following the course laid down in this paper, the necessity for a tunnel can be avoided. The Atlantic Harbours. As it would not be practicable at all times to sail into a canal direct from the open sea, safe anchorage must first be obtained * Letters on the Darien Canal. London : Eflingliam Wilson, 1857. ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 93 very near its entrance, and that opening must itself be perfectly protected not only from injury from land floods, but from the effects of storms, from the surf and heavy swell of the sea, and from any accumulation of sand, mud, or shingle. Delays, dangers, difficulties, and expense would he the consequences of using a canal not provided with the adjunct of a good harbour at each end, and such a canal would not answer the require- ments of commerce. For any line, therefore, by which it may be proposed to effect the junction of the two oceans, the sine qua non, the preliminary and indispensable requisite, is that it should have at each terminus a good harbour, capable of affording secure anchorage at all times, in both the dry and the rainy season, safe and sheltered from all winds, having sufficient capa- city and depth of water, and easy of ingress and egress. The following description will, perhaps, he sufficient to prove that the Darien route is adequately provided with secure harbours at each end. On the Atlantic coast a series of good anchorages extends continuously for 12 nautical miles from S.E. to N.W., namely, Port Escoces, 2^ ; Caledonia Bay, ; Caledonia Harbour, 2^ ; and the Channel of Sassardi, 3J miles in length. All these have great depth of water, the least being 6 fathoms. They are so extensive and (with the exception of Caledonia Bay, which is an open roadstead) so perfectly sheltered that whole fleets might ride safely in them. Port Escoces is a noble harbour, with from 6 to 9 fathoms of water over a bottom of sand, except in its innermost part, where the water shoals to 3 fathoms. It extends inwards 2^ miles, with a breadth of from ^ to ^ a mile. It is very safe, being protected from the winds and waves by a promontory, on the inner side of which the Scotch colonists built the town of New Edinburgh and the fort of St. Andrew. The summit of the promontory is 580 ft. high, and the hill at its point 260 ft. Both are covered with forest. The latter was named Patterson Hill by Parsons, as it was from its top the colonists were accus- tomed to look over the sea in the evening, in the direction of Scotland. The author was the first to point out the site of the settlement, and in 1854 brought Dr. McDermott, of H.M.S. Espiegle, to search for the canal that the colonists dug round the fort, but it was dark when they reached the place. Dr. McDermott afterwards returned with Commander Parsons, and they found the canal quite perfect. It is 130 paces in length, cut angularly as a fortification, and has an embankment on the inner side. Its north entry, 8 ft. deep and 12 ft. wide, is cut through rock. They dug into several mounds, having the appearance of graves, hut could find nothing : these may have 94 ISTHMUS OF DAHIEN AND THE STTTP CANAL. been heaps from the ruins of lionses, and tlie cemetery may have been at some distance from tlie fort. They could find no guns; probably these were removed by the Spaniards, and now, per- haps, help to form the barrier round Fort San Jose, at Cartha- gena. Several rivulets fall into Port Escoces, and offer facilities for watering. Their water, and that of the rivers of Darien in general, is clear, cool, sparkling, and delicious. The entrance into Caledonia Pay is between Point Escoces and Tsla del Oro or Golden Island, wliich liears from the former N. 40° W., distant 4 miles. From this line it falls inward If mile. It is clean, and has great depth of water. The greater part of its shore is a beach, near the middle of which disembogue the rivers Aglaseniqua* and Aglatumati. Point Escoces is 7 miles N.W. f W. (N. 48° W.) of the point at the entrance of Carreto Harbour. Golden Island is wooded to the summit, which is 470 ft. high, and has a cliffy appearance at the base and sides. It has a rivulet of elear water and a landing place at the south side. Lionel Wafer, the surgeon of the Buccaneers, and Captain Party Sharp stopped on it for fifteen days in the year 1680. About If mile S. of Golden Island is a smaller one, named San Augustin or Ascension, on which there is a large space covered with a mass of bricks and tiles, the ruins of a magazine which the Spaniards built in 1785, and from which it derives its Indian name of Kinki Topoo or gunpowder island. It is inte- resting as being the place where the treaty of peace between the Spaniards and Indians was signed on June the 9th, 1787. It was cleared in 1854 by Captain Hollins, of the U.S. corvette, Cyane, to receive the jackasses which Lieutenant Strain, U.S.N. had brought down from New York, under the erroneous impres- sion that there was a road across Darien, by which his party could ride over to the Pacific ! Rather more than a cable’s length south of San Augustin is Piedras Islet, so named from the rocks close to its shores. In Caledonia Harbour, between San Augustin and the three large Sassardi Islands, which are to the N.W., are Dobbin Cay, Espiegle, Cyane, and Chimere Islands, and Scorpion Cay. The four last were named by Parsons after the vessels of war that were engaged on the Darien expedition. The Aglatumati River has a course of about 12 miles from S.E. to N.W. Its mouth is about 50 ft. wide, and has a bar with very little water on it, but inside there is a depth of 8 ft. About a mile up it is shallow enough in the dry season for A(jla is tlic name of tlie mountain in whieli they rise ; seniqua means “ little,” and tumuli “ big.” Ayla signifies “ bones of men.” ISTHMUS OP DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 95 one to wade along it knee deep ; but in the rainy season the depth is considerable and the current very strong, and during floods it rushes along with great impetuosity and a roar- ing noise. At its mouth there are flve bamboo huts, in one of which an old Indian, whose adopted name was Kobinson, resided in 1850. On the arrival of the expedition the Indians abandoned them, and they were occupied by some of the New Granadian soldiers and convicts brought from Carthagena by Colonel Oodazzi, who kept them there in a state of total inaction. About tliree miles up the Aglatumati receives a large tributary (the Chucurti) on the left hand side, and on the point between them there is a rancho or shed for Indians going to or from the Sucubti or the Chueti to rest at. About two miles higher up it is joined by a small stream on the right hand, on the further bank of which is the village of Agla, consisting of about eighteen huts, with a population of about sixty. It had just been abandoned when Mr. Gisborne and party arrived there, the Indians having fled through fear of the white men. The prin- cipal man of the place was Juan Seva, named after a Malaga man, who traded for twenty-eight years from Carthagena to the Darien coast, but was so much afraid of the Indians that he never once landed on it. On the lower bank of the above stream (Dos Bocas) there is a cacao plantation, from which a trail leads for about 300 yards to the foot of Mount Agla, which rises quite suddenly. Its summit is 926 ft. high, and very narrow, and the ascent to it is rather steep. The descent is more gradual on the other side to its foot, where the Foreti unites with the Sucubti, the waters of which flow into the Paciflc. This is the trail by which the Indians cross the Cordillera from Caledonia Bay to Sucubti village ; by which they guided Vasco Nuiiez in 1513, the Buccaneers in 1680, and. the Spanish Adjutant, Manuel deMilla Santa Ella in 1788. It was by the same trail that Lieutenant Strain crossed on the 23rd of January, and ]\Ii’. Gisborne, on the 7th of February, 1854, and it was through Mount Agla that Mr. Gisborne re- ported that a tunnel would be necessary. But this is not the line that had been proposed by Dr. Cullen, which, as will be explained, is some miles to the N.W. of the trail. At the mouth of the Aglatunijiti, from whence Vasco Nunez had started on his memorable journey, the settlement of Ada or Agla was founded by Gabriel de Bojas in 1514. It was forti- fied in 1516 by the orders of Pedrarias Davila, but was aban- doned in 1532 for Nombre de Dios, whence the Spaniards opened a road through the bush to Panama. After Drake’s ex- pedition, the Atlantic terminus of the transit route was removed to Portobello, which was given up for Chagres, and that, in 96 ISTTTMUS OF DATIIEN AND THE STTIF CANAL. turn, for As])iiiwall or Colon, the terminus of tlic Panama Pail- road. The liuccaneers, in 1()8(), under I>asil Piimro.se, Party Sharp, William Damjiier, and Pichard Sawkins, witli -svliom was the surgeon, Lionel V\\afer, of London, made the Aglatumati mouth* the starting jioint of their ex])e(iition to the South Sen. The same jilace was afterwards selected by (General Arehalo for the erection of the fort of San Fernando de (hirolinn, built in 1785 and abandoned in 1790, the site of which is indicated by a grove of cocoa-nut trees, and some tiles and bricks. A hirge fpiantity of the latter was once brought to Carthagena by Juan Seva, whose father-in-law built a house with them. The Aglaseniqua is 20 ft. wide at its mouth, which has a bar with only 2 ft. of water on it. Inside, the depth is 8 ft. and half a mile uj) 5 ft. Its course from the mountain is short and direct, and it is totally uninhabited. Poth this river and the Aglatumati were traced up to their sources by different parties, in the vain expectation of finding a low pass from them across the Cordillera. Caledonia IIahbour, a most secure haven, extends from a line drawm between Golden Island, Piedras Islet, and San Fulgencio Point to the Mangrove Cays to the west. Its S.E. entrance is off and on, with four cables’ length in extent from edge to edge, and with from 9 to 12 fathoms depth on oaze ; and further in, from 8 to 10 fathoms. Between the turn of the bank off Piedras Islet and Caledonia Bay, the depth is from 7 to 15 fathoms; and the piece of sea which intervenes between this harbour and Port Escoces is of a good deptli ; but at a short mile S.E. by E. ^ E. (S. 55° E.) from Piedras Islet the sea breaks when the breeze blows fresh. This harbour is sheltered from the winds and seas of both seasons, and has good depth throughout. It is | of a mile wide, and 2^ miles in extent to a narrrow bar which separates it from Sassardi Channel. The point of San Fulgencio is salient, scarped, and clean. Immediately behind it rises an isolated hill, 200 ft. high, which Parsons named Mount Vernon. Just inland of it Captain Hollins bored a well through a stratum of dolomite or magnesian limestone. Immediately inside, or to the N.W. of San Fulgencio Point, is an indent or little bay which falls inwards half a mile from a line drawn between San Fulgencio and its western point, and is a mile in length from S.E. to N.W. Its western side is bordered by some mangrove cays. This haven is so snug ” that it would be the most eligible place for the entrance of the canal. To adapt it for the passage of ships, it would be necessary to * In 1704, some Frcnclimcn settled there, but were soon afterwards mas- sacred by the liidhuis. ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 97 remove a few little shoals, and to deepen it to 30 ft. for a quarter of a mile from the shore, in which space it has only from 12 to 24 ft. of water. Immediately Avestward of it, however, the depth close in shore is much greater. The inner part of its western extremity is in Lat. 8° 53' 45" N., Lon. 77° 43' 30" W. At the N.W. end of Caledonia Harbour, 2| miles N.W. of Fulgencio Point, and in a line with the bar which separates it from the channel of Sassardi, a considerable river, with 8 ft. of water at its mouth, falls into the harbour. This river traverses the valley between Agla and Sassardi, the parallel mountains of which the Cordillera, inland of Caledonia Harbour, consists. The water-shed between it and the Sucubti is the lowest summit level between the oceans, and therefore, the careful examination of this river will be of the utmost importance in the survey about to be made. Captain Marivault, of the French frigate, Xwcz/er, who visited Caledonia Harbour in 1860, says of it : This harbour is mag- nificent, and no one could desire a better point for the entrance of a ship canal. To the north of San Fulgencio Point tlie sea is perfectly calm.” The Channel of Sassardi is between the mainland and the three Sassardi islands, the aggregate length of which is 3| miles. Its entrance, f of a mile wide, is between the point of the N.W. island and the Fronton of Sassardi. The latter is a round, scarped promontory surrounded by reefs close to the shore. The total length of the channel from the bar between it and Cale- donia Harbour to its N.W. end is 3J miles. Commander Par- sons says, in his Sailing Directions:” — Sassardi Harbour is a fine sheet of water, being H mile long and J of a mile wide, with an average depth of 6 fathoms throughout, excepting a few shoals nearly awash. It is joined to Caledonia Harbour by a narrow bar of 12 ft. This Mr. Gisborne bored, and found it could be easily removed, having penetrated into marl 15 ft. If cut through it would make a clear communication, with the advantage of a double entry to the harbour.” Into its N.W. extremity falls the small river Sassardi, at the mouth of which is the village of the same name, consisting of fifteen huts, with a population of about sixty Indians, the chief of whom was for- merly a very old man, named John Bull, who was succeeded by Denis ; the latter as before stated, died in 1861. Between it and the river of Caledonia Harbour, two other streams fall into the channel, one of them being from 6 to 10 ft. deep at its mouth, the water in which is salt. The engineer will have a wide scope for selecting a locality for the entrance of the canal, which may open anywhere in Caledonia Harbour or the channel of Sassardi. Parsons says : H 98 ISTHMUS OF DAHTEN AND TTTE RTTTP CANAL. There are several points wliieli .are favour.able for the entry of a ship canal, Iniving deep w.atcr in close ])roxiinity to the shore, with ])rotection outside.” Th.at which Dr. Cullen recommends is the bight N.W. of San Fulgencio Point. In Caledonia Bay, .and Port Escoces, there arc also several ])oints witli from 0 to 9 fathoms, so near the shore th.at vessels might lie there .as close to the land as they c.an in the Bosphorus; hut they are out of the way and not sufficiently [)rotectcd. The rise of tide in the Atlantic harbour is 1 ft. G in. s])rings, Oft. 6 in. neaps. High water, full and change 11 h. 40 m. Pacific IIarboues. — The Gulf of San Miguel. The harbours on the Pacific arc even superior to those on the Atl.antic side. The outer one is the in.agnificent Gulf of San ^Miguel, which is peculiarly ad.apted by its position and natural advantages to afford a safe and noble a})])roach to the future c.anal. It runs far inland, has great depth, and capacity suf- ficient for a large fleet. Its entrance is just outside the Gulf of Panama, a great advant.age, since shi])s bound to or from the Pacific would entirely avoid the difficult and baffling n.avigation of that gulf, already alluded to. It is 15 miles across between the points at its entrance, and its extent inwards, or to the N.E., is 22 miles. The least deptli is 6 fathoms, and through- out the greatest part of its extent the soundings vary from 8 to 17 fathoms. The tide rises in it from 18 to 24 ft., runs 5 knots an hour, and ebbs and flows N.E. and S.W. It is bounded on the N. by a promontory 2 miles from E. to W., the inner point being Cape San Lorenzo, and the west or outer one, Punta Brava, which is 78 miles S.E. by E. ^ E. of Panama. One mile S. of it is a shoal, called El Buey (the ox), which is 1^ mile broad and i a mile long, with 6 fathoms close to it. Though out of the track of vessels, this should be removed as soon as the works on the canal shall have commenced. The boundary of the entrance on the S. is Cape Garachine, a bold headland, easily distinguishable from sea. Inside of it there is a bay of the same name, which offers facilities for c.areening ; and behind it rises Mount Garachine, about 2500 ft. high, said to be rich in oro de veta, or gold in veins. The village of Garachine, inha- bited by 162 negroes, is at the mouth of a little river in the bay. At the inner end of the latter the shores of the gulf approach, its width diminishing to 7 miles between Cape San Lorenzo and Morro Patino. It then increases to 12 miles, and again dimi- nishes as far as Boca Chica and Boca Gr.ande, the mouths of the Tuyra, the principal river of Darien. These discharge them- selves, 22 miles from its entrance, into its eastern extremity. ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 99 wliicli is a bay formed by the islands of San Diego, and called Boca de Provincia, or Ensenada del Darien. There are some islands in the gulf, as Iguana, Cedros, San Diego, &c. ; but they are all safe of approach, and have deep water all round them. The rivers Congo, Sucio, and another tidal creek, Cucunati, Cupunati, Buenavista, Escudero, and San Miguel fall into it on the N. ; the Guaca, Taimita, Sambu, Pinuguilla, Garachine, and San Antonio, into Garachin6 Bay; and the Mogue}^ and Sosogana, into JPlaya Guadarra, a bay inside of Morro Patino, on the S. ; whilst the Tuyra opens into it on the E. On the Sambu, at the sources of which gold has been found, there was a hacienda or estate belonging to Seiior Ber- mudez, of Panama. At Taimita mouth there lived some years ago, like a hermit, a white man from Venezuela, named Fer- nando Melo. These and Garachine village are the only inha- bited places. The Congo is the river which Wafer ascended on his return in 1681. From it Lacenta, the Indian chief, guided him to the Chepo, and thence across a very lofty range of the Cordillera to the mouth of the Concepcion, near San Bias Bay, and 60 miles N.W. of Caledonia Harbour. This gulf was named San Miguel by Vasco Nunez, because he dis- covered it on St. Michael’s day, the 29th of September, 1513. The Estuary of the Tuyra or Inner Harbour of Darien. Inside the mouths of the Tuyra is the estuary formed by the united streams of the Tuyra and the Savana, which falls into it from the N. It is 8 miles in length, 4 miles wide opposite the Savana mouth, and has a depth of 13 fathoms at low water. Boca Chica and Boca Grande, by which it discharges itself, have each a depth of 12 fathoms at low water. This inner harbour is perfectly landlocked. The Emperor of the French, at the author’s last audience with him, at the Palace of St. Cloud, on the 30th of October, 1859, was much struck with its advan- tageous position and security, and suggested that it should be named Port Interieur du Darien.” Boca Chica Island, which separates the mouths, is around, conical hill, about 250 ft. high, wooded to the summit, on which there are the ruins of a fort built about 1788. In 1849, Fernando, or Manchakala, a negro who left Pinogana in consequence of Mr. Hossack’s claiming all his services in payment of a debt, settled on it with his sons and grandchildren, being there out of the reach of the corregidor. On the N. bank of the Tuyra, near the E. point of the Savana mouth, there was once a settlement called Escuchadero (the H 2 1 100 ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SIIIF CANAL. listening ])lace or tlie sentinel’s ])ost). The scenery of the hanks of the estuary is magnificent. 'J'he above details will, perhaps, be snfiicient to prove that the harbours at each end of the line have all the recpiisites of safe anchorages — security, depth of water, capacity, and facility of ingress and egress, and that they are admirably adaj)ted for the termini of a grand interoccanic navigation. The soundings, bearings, &c., will be found in the ‘^Survey of Caledonia Har- bour and Port Escoccs,” * with sailing directions accompanying, by Commander Parsons, of If. M. Surveying Shi]), Scorpion; and the Survey of the Gulf of San Miguel,” by Ca])tain Kellett, of II.M.S. Herald, in Sheet 1, West Coast, Central America, both published by the Hydrographic office of the Admiralty, in 1854. The Savana River. Three miles above the mouths of the Tuyra is the W. point of the river Savana, or Chapurti, wdiich opens into the estuary. From thence to Nisperal,t the E. point, the width of its mouth is 2 miles. The depth there is 12 fathoms at low water, and the rise of tide is considerable ; the W. point, about 500 ft. high, is bold and bluff ; the E. point is low. The Savana is a noble river, remarkable for the directness of its course from its mouth up to the confluence of the Lara with it, a distance of 16 Eng- lish miles. Up to that point it is quite free from sand-banks, rocks, shoals, playas or sandy beaches, sinuosities, sudden bends, deep elbows, snags, or obstructions of any kind. Its banks, elevated several feet above the water, are never inundated or swampy. The endemic remittent and intermittent fevers, which are caused by the malarious miasmata from drowned lands, would, therefore, not be likely to occur in any settlements that may be established on its banks. It must not be inferred that the Isthmus of Darien is unhealthy, because Portobello, Chagres, and Aspinwall, the only frequented places on the Isthmus of Panama, are sickly. Those towns are built on swampy ground backed by mountains, in a most unfavourable situation in a sanitary point of view, their convenience for commerce having been exclusively considered in the selection of their sites. A convincing and most agreeable proof of the freedom of the banks of the Savana from swamp is the total absence of mos- * To be had at Stanford’s, in Charing Cross ; or Potter’s, in the Poultry, price 2s. Gd. f Nispcral signifies an orchard of nispero or sapodillo trees {Sapota achras, Sapotaccai). The nispero, a delicious fruit, although commonly called a inedlar, is quite unlike the English medlar. ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 101 quitoes, insects which invariably swarm wherever the ground is marshy. A range of hills, about 500 ft. high, runs parallel to each bank for nearly 15 miles up. The plain on each side between the hills and the river is 2 or 3 miles wide, except near its mouth, where they approach the W. bank much nearer, and ter- minate a bluff behind the point ; whilst on the E. side they recede farther off. Just below the mouth of the Lara, and above a wide part of the river, called Revesa de Piriaki, that near the E. bank terminates in Cerro Piriaki, an isolated, conical hill, about 300 ft. high. Above it there is no hill near either bank. The country on both sides is totally uninhabited ; nevertheless, most of the places have Indian names : thus the Savana is called Chapurti, the W. Point, Pacomalica, &c. The first reach, 7 miles in length, from its mouth to the junction of the Areti with it, has a width of 1^ mile. Its direction is N. true. The depth in it gradually diminishes from 12 to 7 fathoms. A little above the mouth, on the W. bank, is Punta Machete, which has the small shoal of Bajo Grande above it, and that of Bajo Chico below it. Both are quite close to the bank and have beds of oysters on them. Fresh water may be obtained in the driest season from the Quebradas La- guadilla and La Monera, which open on the W. bank. The Iglesias falls into this reach from the E., and fresh water may be procured in both seasons from Quebrada de Tigre, one of its tributaries. Along the N. bank of the Iglesias there is a ridge of hills, the Cerro Fichichi, on the extremity of which, near the angle between the Tuyra and the Chuquanaqua, there was once a settlement, which was abandoned years ago ; the last sur- vivor of its former inhabitants was a negro named Marcellino. The second reach has several islands in it, which are all safe of approach. It extends from the Areti mouth to the most northern of the islands, 3 miles in a N.N.W. direction. Its average width is about 1 mile, and its depth 6 fathoms. The Areti is a large stream, and rises in the Fichichi range. Oppo- site its mouth, Zuniga, a negro from Chapigana, squatted in 1850, and called his place Quintin ; but the total absence of society soon obliged him to quit it. The principal branch of the Areti is the Tinti. The third, Calle Larga, or long reach, which extends from the most northern island to the mouth of the Lara, is 6 miles in length, and has a N.N.W. course. It is very direct, not having the slightest bend. The water shoals in it from b to 5 fathoms, which is the depth at the mouth of the Lara, where there is a rise of tide of 12 ft. or 14 ft. Corotu, an esteroj or creek, into 102 ISTHMUS OF DAIIIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. wliicli tlie tide flows, Corredor, and otlicr streams, open on its W. bank. Tlie journey from tlie Savana moutli to tlie con- fluence of tlie Lara can be made with the tide in two hours. Two miles above the Lara, but on the W., or oyijiosite, bank, is the mouth of the Matumap:anti. Half a mile above it a larn-e qiiipo tree stands conspicuous on the W. bank, towering above the adjacent forest. Half a mile higher up a patch of dense, scrubby brusliwood, without trees, indicates the site of Fuerte del Principe, or Puerto Principe, a military post established by the Sjianiards in 1785, with the object of making a road across the isthmus, from thence to the fort of Cai'olina, in (Cale- donia Bay. But the Indians of the Atlantic coast opyiosed the project, and the forts were abandoned in 1790, as ajiyiears from a despatch from Don Francisco Ayala, Governor ad interim of Darien, dated Chajngana, Oct. 17, 1790, in which lie says he left Principe the day before, having demolished the establish- ment, even the nails of which he took away, and brought off the artillery, ammunition, cattle, &c. This despatch was forwarded by Joseph Domas y Vallez, the Governor of Panama, to Antonio Caballero y Gongora, the Viceroy and Archbishoj) of New Gra- nada, at Bogota. The fort was built on a tongue of land between the Ocubti and the Principe, which oyien on the W. bank of the Savana. The only remains to be found are some fragments of botijas, or water-jars. In 1851 there were at Yavisa three negroes, named Mascareno, Pedro Louriano Galvez, and Lere, who were born at Principe, where their fathers were soldiers. Mascareno was nearly five years old when it was abandoned. They said that the garrison, consisting of 150 men, went from thence to Yavisa, and that there were occasionally as many as 400 men at Principe. They also stated that the evening gun fired at Carolina could be heard at Principe. The only thing which the Spaniards effected during their stay was the opening of a bush-path from Yzquinti, the upper branch of the Savana, to Yzquinti, a branch of the Chuquanaqua, which was done by Don Luis Carrera, Captain of Grenadiers of La Princesa, a regiment of European Spaniards, who was also commandant of the fort. He was assisted by Don Juan Ximenes Donoso, Captain of Engineers ; and the work was done by the directions of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Andres de Ariza, Governor of Darien. It was by this path that Sergeant Gabriel Morales returned from his unsuccessful expedition in search of Indians, in 1786. Tlie only Spaniard who crossed the Isthmus during the occupation of the forts was the adjutant, Don Manuel de Mil la Santa Ella, who went across in 3 days’ walk from Caro- lina to Principe, in 1788, guided by a Sucubti man, and under ISTHMUS OP DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 103 the safe conduct of Suspani, or Urrucliurcliu, the Chief of Sucubti. Finding that he had been tracked by hostile Indians to the precincts of the fort, he did not deem it prudent to return the same way, but went back via Panama and Portobello. No second attempt was made. From Lara mouth to Principe the course is nearly N., and the river becomes somewhat tortuous, with some islets separated by deep channels. At Principe the depth is 3 fathoms, and the rise of tide about 6 ft. The river is crossed there by a ledge of slate, visible when the water is low. Two miles above Principe, on the W. bank, is the mouth of La Villa. A little higher up, on the opposite bank, a rivulet falls into the Savana; by the side of it there was once a path, called C amino de Caobana (the road of the mahogany tree), which was, probably, made by the Spaniards for the purpose of hauling out mahogany. About ^ a mile higher up the river is obstructed by ledges of a slate or coarse argillaceous schist, called pizarra in Spain, and killas in Cornwal], which cross it diagonally at several points for a considerable distance up. Between these ledges there are reaches with great depth and a slack current. The tide reaches up to the first falls caused by them, or about 22 miles above the Savana mouth, but only flows for an hour. About 2 miles above La Villa, also on the W. bank, is the mouth of the Canasas, so named from a thorny species of bamboo, of which there are impenetrable thickets in the vicinity. About a century ago, when the Indians were more numerous, there was a trail from thence to the Canasas, a branch of the upper Chepo, by which hunters used to pass in three days. Canoes can go up the Savana for 2 days’ journey to theN. of the Canasas. From its head stream, Yzquinti, to a river of the same name, which flows from S.W. to N.E. into the Chaquanaqua, the distance is only 3 miles. In fine, there is an easy and uninterrupted navigation for vessels of the greatest draught of water all the way from the confluence of the Lara with the Savana to the Pacific Ocean. It is, then, into the Lara, at or above its mouth, that the Pacific entrance of the future canal should open. The Line. Premising that, as already stated, the whole isthmus is covered throughout with a dense primeval forest, extending from the summits of the highest mountains to the very edge of the sea, and broken only by the courses of the rivers, which are very numerous, the line from Caledonia Harbour to the mouth of the 104 ISTTTMTIR OF OAKTFN AND TITF RTTTP CANAL. Lara may be divided into six parts, •wliicli, witli tliemean courses by compass, and the distances in Knglisli miles between the principal points are as follows : 1. Tlie line crosses a ])lain extending from the S.^V^. extre- mity of the bight in Caledonia Harbour to the entrance of a valley between Agla Mountain, on the S.K. and Sassardi Moun- tain, on the N.W. — 2 miles S. by W. W. (S.S.W. true.) 2. Through the valley, miles S.E. by S. ^ S. (S.S.E. true.) On the way the line strikes upon the head of the Sucubti. 3. Down the Sucubti to the site of the abandoned hamlet, 2J miles, S. f E. (S. trne.) Canoes can comeu]) to the haiidet, and even a cou])le of miles above it, and can descend from thence to the Pacific, via the Chuquanacpia and the Tuyra. 4. From the hamlet down the l)ed of the riv^er to the con- fluence of the Asnati with it, 7 miles W.S.W. (W. by S. ^ S. true.) Ill this stage the Napsati falls into the Sucubti, 2^ miles above the Asnati. 5. From the Asnati mouth the line continues to follow the Sucubti down to its confluence with the Chuquanafpia, on the E. bank of which it opens — ll-i- miles, W. J N. (W. by N. J N. true.) 6. From* the W. bank of the Chuquanaqua, opposite the Sucubti mouth, and below the Artuganti and La Paz mouths, to the confluence of the Lara with the Savana, it traverses the forest for the distance of 15 J miles S.AY. by W. \ W. (W.S.W. true.) The length of the line is 42 English miles, from which at least 3 may be deducted for the windings of the Sucubti, which would be cut across. It runs for 21^ miles along the bed of that river, the lower 12 of which are pretty direct, and would admit of being canalised by means of dams and embankments, for a moderate outlay, leaving 27 miles for the length of canal required. The entire transit route from sea to sea will then consist of — English Miles. 27 12 16 3 Cana( . . Canalised Fiver Navigation of the Savanna Navigation of the Tuyra . 58 This distance could be easily traversed in 24 hours, even making allowance for the time that would be occupied in the passage of the locks. The S.W. end of the bight being in Lat. 8° 53' 45" and Long. 77° 43' 30", and the mouth of the Lara being in Lat. ISTHMUS OF DAKIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 105 8° 41' 45" and Long. 78° 7', the distance between them in a direct line is 26 geographical, or 30|- English miles, and the course is S. 62° W. (S.W. by W. ^ W. true), or S.W | W. by compass, allowing | of a point for the variation, which was 8° 50' E. in 1854. The variation is increasing at the rate of, probably, ^ of a minute each year, and may now be assumed to be 8° 53' E. As the tide of the Pacific rises 6^ ft. at the bifurcation of the Lara (3J miles above its mouth), and that point is less than 28 English miles from Caledonia Harbour, the length of canal required would be lessened by two miles by cutting into the river at its bifurcation, and dredging it from thence to the Savana. The following are the latitudes and longitudes of the prin- cipal points : Escoces Point .... Golden Island, N.E. Point Eronton of Sassardi San Fnlgencio Point S. W. end of the Bight of Caledonia' Harbour, N. W. of St. Fnlgencio | Point Entrance of Valley Sucubti Hamlet, site of . Asnati mouth .... Sucubti mouth .... Lara do Savana do. (W. Point) Tuyra do. (Boca Cliica) Punta Brava (Gulf of San Miguel) . Garachine Point (ditto) Lat. N. Long. W. 8 ° 51 ' 22 " 77 ° 38 ' 30 " 8 54 20 77 40 50 8 58 4 77 45 0 8 53 37 77 42 15 8 53 45 77 43 30 8 52 7 77 44 15 8 47 30 77 43 45 8 46 0 77 49 0 8 48 30 77 57 45 8 41 45 78 7 0 8 28 30 78 5 0 8 28 45 78 8 0 8 20 30 78 24 15 8 6 0 78 22 30 Punta Brava is 78 miles S.E. by E. ^ E. of Panama; and San Fnlgencio Point is 135 miles E. by S. of Aspinwall or Colon, in Navy Bay, the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Railroad. 'The line is from 60 to 80 miles E. of the boundary line between the Isthmus of Darien and the Isthmus of Panama, which runs from the Chepo or Bayano, in the Gulf of Panama, to Mandinga or San Bias Bay, and along its shore to Cape San Bias, and corre- sponds very nearly to the meridian of 79° W. Levels. The Cordillera, inland of that part of the coast between Sas- sardi Point and Carreto Harbour, consists of three distinct ranges, which run parallel to the coast, or S.E. and N.W. The first commences close to the shore of Port Escoces, and runs S.E. behind Carreto. The second, named Agla, begins at San Ful- gencio Point, and becomes continuous with the first behind lOG ISTHMUS OF DAHIEN AND THE SIITI’ CANAL. Carreto, forming, at the ])oint of junction, an elevated round(‘(l suminit, called Loma Deseada. Jletween them is enclosed the deep and wide valley in which the Aglatmnati ;ind Airlasenirpia have their courses. This valley bein^ closed u)) at its head by the junction of the two ranges, there is no ])mss from it, ;ind a canal from it to the Sucubti, on the Pacific side of the Cordillera, would not be practicable, except by tunnelling through Mount Agla, the base of which is 3 miles broad. This valley o])ens into Caledonia and not into Caledonia Harbour^ and is 3 miles S.E. of the line: it should, therefore, be avoided. The third range is Sassardi Mountain, which commences inland of the N.AV. extremity' of the latter, and runs thence N.W., termi- nating abruptly a little west of Sassardi Point. Petween its N.W. end and Navagandi Mountain thei’e is a comjdete break in the Cordillera. Through this there may, ])erhaps, l)e a low pass from Sassardi River to the Moreti, which falls into the Chu- (pianaqua 7 miles N. of the Sucubti. Its S.E. extremity being overlapped by the N.AY. end of Agla, and both being covered with a dense forest, the two ranges appear as one to a careless observer ; but View 3 on Parsons’ Chart shows very clearly that they are distinct and unconnected. The height of Sassardi, 3| miles AV. by S. of San Fulgencio, is 1985 ft. It falls to 710 ft., 2^ miles S.E of that summit. In the next f of a mile it rises to 1275 ft., and then suddenly sinks dowm to the level of the valley between it and Agla. The Peak of Agla, on the other side of the valley, is 926 ft. high ; it bears from the 1275 ft. summit of Sassardi E., and the horizontal distance between them is IJ mile. Between these two summits is situated the valley to whicli Dr. Cullen directed attention in 1850, the existence of which is placed beyond doubt by Commander Parsons, who has laid it down in his chart for the distance of 1;^ mile up from its en- trance. He was able to see into it from the position in which the Scorpion was anchored in the N.AY. end of the Channel of Sassardi, the obliquity of its direction preventing its being seen from any other position. Half-way up this valley, which is 3 miles long, is a low and narrow ridge, forming the water-shed between the river that falls into Caledonia Harbour,* — 2| miles N.W. of San Fulgencio Point, 3J from the Aglaseniqua, and 4;^ from the Aglatumati mouth — and the Sucubti, the waters of which flow into the Chuquanaqua, the Tuyra, and the Pacific. It is, therefore, the lowest summit level between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and is only 4 miles from the former. The height of this ridge is estimated by Dr. Cullen at from 180 to * It miglit be called Caledonia llivcr, but that Mr. Gisborne erroneously gave that name to the Aglatumati. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 107 200 ft. On the Pacific side of it is the source of one of the head streams of the Sncnbti, which is joined, about mile lower down, at the foot of the 926 ft. summit, by the Foreti. The way across Agla from the valley of the Aglatumati leads to the junction of the two streams ; but the necessity of crossing the mountain to reach the Sucubti may be entirely avoided by en- tering the valley between Sassardi and Agla, instead of that between Agla and the first range. Canoes can come up to the point of junction, which is scarcely 6 miles from the Atlantic, and from thence there is uninterrupted water communication all the way to the Pacific ; so that, by cutting for about a mile through the ridge, a passage for canoes could be opened from ocean to ocean. It would be quite practicable to open a canal for ships down the Sucubti and the Chuquanaqua to the Tuyra, which, at the confluence of the latter with it, is a great river, with water enough for the largest ships, and a considerable rise of tide ; but such a line would be three times the length of that by way of the Savana. The elevation of the bed of the Sucubti falls from about 180 ft. at its source to 70 or 80 ft. at its mouth. From the bank of the Chuquanaqua opposite the Sucubti mouth, where the line crosses it, the land gradually rises from 70 or 80 to 120 or 130 ft. in a distance of 7 miles. It then falls for 8i miles to the con- fluence of the Lara with the Savana, where there are 5 fathoms of water, and where the Pacific tide rises 14 ft. The most important elevation to be ascertained is that of the ridge, which is only 4 miles, or two hours’ walk, from Caledonia Harbour, and which will admit of being cut down to such a depth as to reduce considerably the amount of lockage that would otherwise be required. Geology. The material to be excavated consists of alluvial deposit of very great depth — clay, gravel, and rock. The shores and the sides of the smaller hills,” says Parsons,* are composed of an accumulation of coral deposit, forming, in some places, a loose kind of coralline limestone, but in general being disconnected. This substance is found to some distance inland, on removing the substratum of alluvial deposit, rendering it probable that the low land from the base of the hills has been formed by drift or upheaval in no very remote age.” The soft material removed by Captain Hollins, of the United States’ corvette CyanCy in boring for a well near San Fulgencio Point, was dolomite (mag- _ * ‘‘ Sailing Directions for Part of the Isthmus of Darien/’ accompanying his Chart. 108 ISTHMUS OF DARIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. ncsia 48, lime 52). In tlic beds of tlic smaller rivers there romided pebldes, and some of the larger rivers are crossed, liigli 11 ]), by ledges of slate. Unfortunately, the boring instrimuaits brought out in 1854 were not even landed. 'The same thing occairred in the abortive French cxjieditions of 1800 and 1801, the rc])orts of which were published liy M. Paul Roger, the administrator of La Societe Civile du Canal du Darien, by which they were sent out, in a book entitled “Percement do ristlime AmericJiin — Journal dcs Ex])lorations dans Ic Darien.” In 1800 M. Feragus, M. Paqiiet, and others landed at the mouth of the Aglatumati — the wrong ])laee as usual — but, being con- fronted there by six Indians, by whom they could not make themselves understood, and who seemed to assume a hostile attitude, they returned at once on Ijoard the French vessel of war, J.ncifer^ Ca])tain Marivault, and sailed back for France re infeetd. Jn 1801, jMjM. Lourdiol, Pa([uet, de Champvillc, dc Piiydt, and the Abbe Amodru, accom])anied by a cook,* went, via Aspinwall and Panama, to the Gulf of San Miguel and the river Savana, and ascended the latter as far as the mouth of the Lara, from whence they penetrated some miles on foot ; but, liaving chosen the time of the heaviest rains for their exploration, they found the country so inundated that, before reaching the Chuquanaqua, they were up to their shoulders jusq’aux epaules”) in water ! They, therefore, returned to Paris, and the Society dissolved. Work to be Done. There would be no work to be done in the harbours or the approaches to the canal, except the erection of light-houses, the placing of buoys, the deepening of the Bight of San Fulgencio for a quarter of a mile from its present depth — 12 to 24 ft. — to a uniform depth of 30 ft., the removal of a few small shoals in Caledonia Harbour, of the shoals (reventazones) between Golden Island and Point Escoces, and of El Buey Shoal in the Gulf of San Miguel. Trollope Bock, 15 miles true W. of Garachine Point should also be removed by blasting. Should the depth at Lara mouth be found to fall below 5 fathoms in the dry season, some dredging would be required in the Savana for a mile or so below that point. With these exceptions, the whole amount of work to be done would be to cut a canal 12 miles in length, from Caledonia Harbour to the mouth of the Asnati ; to canalise the * Tliis was M. Hastido, tlic highly esteemed cocinero of the Western TTotcl at Panama. In 1805, M. dc Piiydt sent him np the Tuyra, with instnictions to cross from thence to the Tarcna ; hut, on reaching Moliiicca, tlie people of that village refused to let him pass beyond it. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 109 Sucubti from tlience to the Chuquanaqua — a distance of 11-|- miles — and to cut a canal, 15^ miles long from the Chuquanaqua to the Savana. A most abundant supply of water for the highest levels could be obtained from the head of the Sucubti, the Foreti, Moreti, Asnati, Napsati, Chueti, Tubuganti, Ar- tuganti. La Paz, and several other rivers, each of which pours forth, in tlie driest season, a volume of water far beyond what would be required for the canal. In this, as in other respects, the country offers every facility for the construction of a canal with locks. The height of the summit levels, the number of cubic yards of earth and rock to be excavated, the nature of the latter, and the number of locks that will be required, have yet to be ascertained. The width of the canal will also be a point to be considered by the engineer, who will have to decide whether it would be better to make it v>dde enough for the passage of two ships abreast, or of one only, with lie-by places at which ships might pass each other. However scanty and incomplete the information that can now be offered on this line may appear, it is yet sufficient to prove that, besides the pre-eminent recommendation of being provided with excellent harbours at each terminus, it has the additional advantages of shortness, low elevation, and healthiness. Dr. Cullen, therefore, considers himself justified in asserting it to be the most eligible route for interoceanic communication, and is confident that, when as admirable a survey shall have been made of it as those of the Panama, Nicaragua, and Atrato routes, by Garella, Childs, and Michler, it will be found to require a lesser amount of excavation and fewer locks than any of the other proposed routes. In fact, a glance at the map will convince the most sceptical that nature has most unmistakably marked out this tract for the junction of the two oceans, and the breaking of the continuity of North and South America. Indeed, the line of division is so narrov^^ and so low that it is likely the two seas did once meet here. Considering the rapid strides that engineering science has made quite recently, and is still making, it would be waste of time to adduce any arguments to prove that there is nothing stupendous,” as the phrase used to be, in this undertaking. It is enough to allude to the Languedoc, Erie, Ganges, East Jumna, West Jumna, and Baree Doab Canals, and to the great canalisation and irrigation system in China. In comparison with any one of those great works, long ago completed, the proposed canal in Darien seems quite a trifling undertaking. It will be, after all, little more than 1 J times the length, and 1-j times the 110 ISTHMUS OF UAHIEN AND THE STTIF CANAL. (leptli, of tlic Caledonian Canal, wliicli was coin])letGd by Mr. Telford in 1822, the total cost having been 1)05,258^.* Cost. There are, as yet, no data npon which an estimate of the cost of the work could be framed. A rough, a])proximate calculation has, however, been made under the following circumstances. The author having, in 1857, presented all the plans and docu- ments bearing on the matter to the Em])eror of the French, his Majesty, after examining them, forwarded them to Count Walewski, who appointed a commission of engineers of the Cor])S des Fonts et Chaussees to study the (piestion. The result at which they arrived, after an investigation which occu- pied three weeks, was that the canal was practicable without a tunnel, and could be completed for 15(),()()(),00() francs, or G,000,()0()/. sterling. The estimate drawn uj) in 1804, by M. Mougel Bey, the Chief of the Cor])S, is as follows : Excavation of the Canal Francs. 76,027,437 Centimes. 25 Dredging of the Savana .... 3,080,000 Aqueducts 490,000 35 Turning the course of Rivers 1,241,660 35 Machinery, Locks, &c 33,176,080 55 Material, Buildings, Tools, clearing Forest, and ) Expenses of Administration . . . j 19,400,000 35 Contingencies 39,584,822 75 173,000,000 or £0,920,000. A considerable reduction might be made by canalising 12 miles of the Sucubti, as already suggested, but no data can be given for the expense of such a work. The estimate made The Caledonian Canal, 23 miles 8 chains long, 122 feet wide at top, 50 feet at bottom, has a depth of 20 feet in general, but, in some parts, not more than 17. There arc 28 locks, each of which, except the regulating or guard locks, has a lift of 7 or 8 feet. It consists of several short canals, connecting together some lochs, and thereby establishing a communication between the Atlantic Ocean and the German Sea. The main line of the Forth and Clyde Canal is 35 miles long, 56 feet wide at top, 27 at bottom, and 10 feet deep. In 10| miles from Grangemouth it rises 156 feet by 20 locks. The summit level continues 16 miles, and from it to the Clyde there is a descent of 156 feet by 19 locks. It had to be carried through moss, quicksand, gravel, and rocks, over precipices, and across valleys, in the course of which, besides smaller ones, 18 drawbridges, and 15 aqueducts, with several tunnels, had to be constructed. It was commenced in 1768 by Mr. Smeaton, and completed in 1790, at a cost of 200,000/. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. Ill by M. Thome de Gamond* for canalising the whole course of the San Juan de Nicaragua, 119 miles, amounted to 24,100,000 francs, or 964,000^. ; but the fall of the San Juan is little over one foot per mile, whilst that of the Sucubti is, perhaps, 5 or 6 ft. per mile. A most abundant supply of material for the embank- ments could be obtained close at hand, from the excavations for the canal at either end of the canalised portion of the river. The whole work might, perhaps, be done by 15,000 men in four years. Allowing SOL a year for the wages and food of each, the cost of the labour would be 4,800,000/. Seasons. The seasons in Darien are the dry and the rainy. The dry season, from December to May, is during the time of the strong trade-winds, which cause the vapours to pass over the moun- tains to the Pacific. These are arrested when the winds become lighter, and then the rainy season commences, which lasts till December, with fine weather at intervals. The breezes in the dry season are exceedingly strong, causing a heavy sea to prevail along this coast. Care must be taken, in standing in for the land, to allow sufficient room for wearing, in the event of missing stays, a thing of frequent occurrence with us. “ The average temperature is about 82° F ahr. The atmo- sphere is exceedingly moist and hazy, by exhalation from the sea, and the land sometimes cannot be seen more than 5 miles.”'*' Winds. Of the winds. Parsons says : The prevailing wind here is from N.N.W. to N.N.E. This is the trade-wind, whicli, turned from its direction by the high land of the continent, and finding a void in the Gulf of Darien, rushes in to fill it. From January to April we had it constantly blowing in this direction, with an approach to calm at night. In the rainy season, the wind ceases at night, and a land wind blows from the mountains, with occa- sional squalls with rain from the S.W. ; but I think it would seldom blow with any force from the S.E. or E. Hurricanes are unheard of in this quarter, it being sheltered by the land to the eastward; and these gales never pass over large continents, confining themselves principally to the open sea, or only passing over small islands. * Gamoud, Thome de. Carte d’Etade pour le trace et le profil du Canal de Nicaragua. Paris, 1858. f Parsons’ “ Sailing Directions.” 112 ISTHMUS OF DAIIIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. Eartli quakes must be rare, as tlie Indians do not recollect tlie ground shaking at any time. This fact would be favourable to the ])ermanency of a ship canal when once established.”* Climate. PTom the total absence of swam]), marsh, or fen along the line, and the great number of rivers and rivulets ((juebradas) with rapid currents, which drain the adjacent country, and ])revent the lodgment of stagnant water in its vicinity, the climate may be considered healthy, and the occurrence of malai’ious fevers amongst European labourers, if well cared for and of temperate habits, need scarcely be a])])rehended. The re])orts of Dr. McDermott, of II.M.S. Espiegle, Dr. Brownlow, of the U.S. corvette Cyane, Dr. Kondat, of the Pb’encli war steamer Chimere (avis), and Dr. Boss, of II.M.S. Virago, show that, amongst 900 men who com])Osed the crews of the vessels which lay at anchor in Caledonia Ilarbour, and 250 men of the Virago, which was stationed in the river Savana, in 1854, not a single case of sickness occurred during the three months of their stay ; whilst the convalescence of those who were sick on the arrival of the vessels there was unusually rapid. Dr. McDermott says, in a letter in the Medical Times of January 17, 1857 : “It results from the experience of Dr. Boss, Dr. Brownlow, and myself, that the po 2 :)idar idea of the un- healthiness of Darien is quite erroneous. Not a single case of sickness occurred amongst any of the parties sent on shore from the Espiegle, Cyane, and Chimere, whilst the patients who were on the sick lists of those vessels, on their arrival in Darien, rapidly convalesced. Indeed, it was remarked by all the medical officers that the crews of the vessels were in better condition on leaving Darien than when we arrived there. From all the The exemption of Darien from volcanie disturbance is remarkable. It appears to be one of those limited districts sometimes found in volcanic regions, on each side of which earthquakes and eruptions occur without affecting the central district. Ileasoning upon the causes why certain intermediate points at the surface of the earth, and in the direction traversed by eartliquak-es, are unatfected by their inliuence, Humboldt, as if to bear out the assertion of the Panamenians that their province is not troubled by them, observes: “This ])henomcnon is frequently remarked at Peru and Mexico in earthquakes which liave followed during ages a determinate direction. The inhabitants of the Andes say, witli simplicity, speaking of an intermediate ground, which is not affected by the general motion, that it forms a bridge {hace puente), as if they meant to indicate by this expression that the undulations are propagated at an immense depth under an inert rock.’" It docs not appear that there have been eruptions or earthquakes during the last few centuries in any part of the Istlimus of Darien.” ISTHMUS OF DAETEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 113 inquiries that I made among the natives, I could not ascertain that any particular form of fever or other disease prevailed among them, and, from their appearance, I would say they are a very healthy race.” Commander Parsons, also, says : During our stay, from January to April, we found the climate to be healthy, having had no cases of fever, although the men were greatly exposed.” Lastly, Mr. Gisborne, in his Report to Lord Wharncliffe, says : There have been altogether in this surveying expedition 900 persons subject to climatic influences, some along the coast, and some in the interior, and I believe I am correct in stating that not a single case of illness occurred during the whole period of our stay.” The opinion which the author had previously expressed of the healthiness of the climate, founded upon a consideration of the physical aspect of the tract of country, has thus been cor- roborated, and receives further conflrmation from a document which he found in the course of his researches in the i^rchives of Bogota. This was the diary of Sergeant Gabriel Morales, who, with Sergeants Miguel Antonio Delgado and Miguel Quintana, commanded a detachment of 150 soldiers of La Princesa Re- giment, who had arrived from Spain only a short time before, and were sent to search for and capture Indians by Lieutenant- Colonel Don Andres de Arisa, the Governor of Darien. They started from the fort of Principe, on the Savana, proceeded to the Moreti, went across the hills to the Sucubti, and returned after an absence of fifteen days in the height of the rainy season, without having seen any sign or trace of an Indian; but in 'perfect health. The diary concludes thus: “July the 25 th, at noon, we entered Principe, and presented ourselves to the go- vernor, informing him that the whole of the troops had returned in perfect health, notwithstanding the terribly unfavom’able weather they had unceasingly encountered, there not having been one fine day ; and that all had used their best endeavours to fall in with the enemy, and returned disconsolate at not having succeeded therein. Puerto Principe, July 25, 1786 — Gabriel Morales.” In conclusion, the author begs to refer to the fact that, although the entire Indian population of Darien does not amount to 3000 souls, there were living, and personally known to him, a few years ago, six chiefs, each of whom was 100 years of age or more, viz., Caldgwa, John Bull, Shephard, Campbell, and two others whose names he did not learn ; whilst the air of Darien would seem to be conducive to longevity even in the case of Europeans, for the late Captain J ohn Shephard, a Scotchman, who spent most of his life on the Darien coast ' I 114 ISTIIMUfi OF BATITEN AND TTTE RTTIF CANAL. trading witli tlic Indians, was a centenarian wlien lie died, in 1853, at San Juan de Nicaragua. ( Mean Level of the Oceans. It was formerly supposed that a great difference of level existed between the two oceans, as well as between the Mediter- ranean and the Kcd Sea; but, in both cases, accurate investiga- tions have proved the belief to have been unfounded. Jn 1855, a series of observations made by Colonel Totten, the Superin- tendent of the Panama Pailroad, on the height of the tides ;ind the levels of the two oceans — in Navy Pay, on the Atlantic, and in Playa Prieta, a bight in the Pay of Panama, on the Pacific — established the fact that the difference of mean level, if any, is very trifling. The following were the results : Pacific. Atlantic. May and June. November and December. August and September. Greatest rise of tide Least Average Mean tide of Paeific above mean tide ] of Atlantic 1 High spring tide of Pacific above high ] spring tide of Atlantic J Low spring tide of Pacific belotv low ] spring tide of Atlantic 1 Mean high tide of Pacific above mean | high tide of Atlantic I Mean low tide of Pacific below mean ] tide of Atlantic I Average rise of spring tides [ [ i [ Feet. 17-72 7-94 12-08 0-759 9-40 G-55 6-25 4-73 14-08 9-CO Feet. 21-30 9-70 14-10 0-140 10-12 9-40 6-73 5-26 17-30 :i2-40 Feet. 1-60 0- 63 1- 16 Average rise of neap tides Colonel Totten thus concludes his Keport : Although my observations make the mean level of the Pacific from 0T40 to 0*759 feet higher than the mean level of the Atlantic, this is probably owing to local circumstances alone. We may, there- fore, decide that there is no difference in the mean level of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.” Colonel Totten, it must be observed, was able to test the accuracy of his levelling across the Isthmus upon the finished bed of the railroad, an advantage not ])ossessed by previous observers. The residt of the difference of the rise of tide is, that there is a perpetual oscillation — ISTHMUS OP DAEIEH AND THE SHIP CANAL. 115 sometimes the one and sometimes the other sea beino; the Iho-her — except at mid-tide, when both are on a level. At high water the Pacific is from 6*25 to 10*12 ft. higher, and, at low water, from 4*73 to 9*40 ft. lower than the Atlantic. The time of high water in Navy Bay and Panama Bay is nearly the same, viz., at 3 h. 20 m. at full and change. In Caledonia Harbour it is high water, at full and change, at 11 h. 40 m. The rise of tide there is 1 ft. 6 in. springs ; 0 ft. 6 in. neaps. The rise and fall of tide in the Gulf of San Miguel is from 18 to 24 ft. As the canal must have a few locks, the difference in the rise of tide in the two oceans would have no bearing whatever on the question of its practicability. Population. The only inhabited place on the line was the village of Sucubti, population about 70, which was set fire to by the in- habitants and abandoned upon the approach of Lieutenant Strain, on the 25th of January, 1854. When Mr. Gisborne arrived there on the 8th of February, he found nothing but the fragments of some canoes, which had been smashed up to render them useless. The people probably removed to Asnati ; and it is likely the place will never be re-occupied, as it was formerly the custom of the Indians to quit for ever any place that had been visited by Spaniards. The only places within 10 miles of the line are — Agla, on the Aglatumati, 3 miles from its mouth in Caledonia Bay, with about 60 inhabitants; and Sassardi, Asnati, and Moreti, with 50 or 60 inhabitants each. Agla and Sassardi were abandoned in 1854. It is very pro- bable that the Indians would give up their claim to that part of the country in exchange for a part of the coast from Cape San Bias to Portobello, which has now, in an extent of 45 miles, only the hamlets of Culebra, Palenque, and Nombre de Dios, with an aggregate population of about 150 negroes, who are descendants of ^i^riarrones or Spanish maroons. Memokanda foe Future Explorers and Surveyors. No “ volunteer,^’so^- Jwawi guide, engineer, or agent of any company should be allowed, on any pretext whatsoever, to accompany the explorers and surveyors to be sent out by the company that may undertake the cutting of the Darien Canal. The intrusion of volunteers ” from the Atrato Ship Canal Company, and the Panama Railroad Company caused the failure of the expedition of 1854. Before any attempt be made to land in Darien the consent of the Indians should be obtained. It was the neglect of this pre- i2 116 TSTTTMUS OF DAKTEN AND TTTE SIIIF CANAL. caution tliat led to tlic unfortunate result of Commander Pro- vost’s ill-advised and misguided attempt to cross the Isthmus. If treated in a friendly, fraid\, and coueillatory Sf)irit, and assured that their sovereignty over the Atlantic j)ortlon of the line is not dls])uted, they will offer no o])])Osition. Some of the Sassardi ])eopie should be sent for Kobinson, w’ho was secretary to Calbgwa, the late chief of the San IJlas Indians, and who re- sides at Carti, or Cedar Kiver, in San I>las Pay. This man lived for twelve years in AVashington ; viz., from 1841 to 1858, and was educated there at the expense of the late Daniel Web- ster. lie is very intelligent and s])eaks English fluently. He should be requested to invite the old men or chiefs of Sucubti, Asnati, Moreti, Sassardi, and Carreto villages to a conference, at which a treaty of friendship should be conciuded with them, and their consent obtained to the making of a survey, and the cutting of the canal. If ])ro})crly treated, they might provide guides through the forest, and furnish canoes for navigating the Sucubti, and hunters for killing game. A large number of Indians should be induced to accompany the explorers, as guides and hunters ; since they would answer as hostages to secure the peaceable behaviour of the others. The party from Caledonia Harbour should find, on their arrival at the mouth of the Lara, another party stationed there and w^ell supplied with provisions, surveying and boring instru- ments, &c. The latter should be sent out, via Aspinwall and Panama to the Gulf of San Miguel and the Savana, a month before the former. The exploring party should be preceded by a sailor, having a ship’s compass suspended in front of his breast by straps. Another sailor, with a ship’s compass secured in the same way, should bring up the rear. Every member of the party should have a pocket-compass, and know or be taught how to use it. Every one of the party, except the sailors with the compasses, who should have no article of iron about them, should have a machete or bush-cutlass, with wdiich he should notch the barks of the trees in going along, so as to make a picadura or blazing. By taking this precaution stragglers will escape the danger of being lost in the bush ; and, in case of difficulty, the party can at any time find their way back. Had Lieutenant Strain’s party adopted this plan, they would have avoided the dreadful sufferings they endured through neglect of it. The distance should be measured by a chain, and every hour’s course and distance logged. Observations for latitude and longitude should be taken at every important point, to serve as astronomical bases. Frequent barometrical observations should also be taken with the view of ascertaining the heights and find- ing the lowest levels. ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 117 Ranchos or sheds, made of poles stuck in the ground and tliatclied with palm leaves, should be built at convenient distances. One of them can be made in an hour, as guagaras or fan-leaved palms are everywhere abundant. The bush and timber felled in making the paths should be burned as soon as possible. Negroes accustomed to work with the machete (macheteros) can be engaged at Carthagena, Portobello, or As^iinwall. They are the best men for clearing bush and cutting paths ; but per- mission for them to land should be obtained from the Indians, as they have a great aversion to negroes, at least, Spanish negroes ; possibly they might not object to Jamaica men. The only right place to start from is the western extremity of the bight N.Yf . of San F ulgencio Point, in Lat. 8° 53' 45", Long. 77° 43' 30". By proceeding from thence, a little more than ^ a mile to the W., and then 2 English miles, S. true, the entrance of the valley will be reached. The chief engineer, in 1854, landed in Caledonia Bay, 3 miles S.E. of the above point, and went up the Aglatumati, although Dr. Cullen had advised him to land at Caledonia Harbour, and told him that there was no pass from the Aglatumati. A light elongating ladder for ascending the trees on the summit of the Cordillera, and a stationary balloon would be useful for the purpose of obtaining an uninterrupted view over the country. A light boat should be carried across to the Sucubti, as it is probable that the hamlet has not been re-occupied, in which case a canoe could not be got there. Rafts should be constructed of the wood of the balsas, or other light timber, to convey the party down the Sucubti. The path from the Chuquanaqua to the Savana should commence either opposite the mouth of the Sucubti, or anywhere within a distance of 4 or 5 miles below that point. The surveyors can alone determine the line of lowest elevation. The exploration being ended, and the line to be surveyed marked out, the engineers can commence the survey. Until that time, the conduct of the affair should be entrusted to some persons experienced in exploring forests in the tropics. The best time for exploring the Isthmus is from the beginning of December to the beginning of April ; that being the dry season the rivers are then low, and the heat is tempered by a N.E. sea breeze. The party should arrive in Darien on or before the 1st of December. Advantages of a Ship-canal. Not only would all the commerce of the western shores of North and South America pass through the canal, but, after its opening, no voyages would be made round the Cape of Good 118 TSTITMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SIITF CANAL. Hope to Cliina and Australia, as tlicy would be much more accessible by the Darien Canal than by the ])resent cirenitons route, and the voyage could be made within one tro])ic, whilst, at present, a vessel must ])ass four times through each tropic in a single voyage out and home. As regards ])assages to and from the west coast of North and South America, it is sufficient to say that to sail, for instance, from Aspinwall, the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Pail road, to Panama, a distance of 4(i miles by land, it would be necessary to sail from 9° N. to 55° S. latitude, in order to weather the stormy Cape Horn, and to return u|) the west coast to 9° N. on the Pacific side. The ship would thus have to sail over 04° of latitude on each ocean, or 7080 nautical, equal to 8890 English miles, on a single passage, or 17,792 miles on a voyage to and from. Besides this enormous distance in latitude to be traversed, it must also be taken into account that, on such a passage, a vessel would have to run off to the eastward as far as 3()° W. longitude, in order to avoid the coast of Brazil, and to make back the same distance to the westward. She would also be obliged to beat to windward both in the Atlantic and Pacific, against the S.E. trade-wind in the former, when l)ound from Aspin- wall to Panama ; in the latter, when bound from Panama to Aspinwall. Moreover, the terrific storms from the W., often experienced off Cape Horn, might delay her entrance into the Pacifie for weeks. Vessels bound either to or from China and Australia would, by the Darien route, have such fair, steady, regular winds, that their arrival might be calculated upon with precision and accuracy. In a passage to China by the canal, a vessel, having cleared its Pacific terminus, would at once enter into the track of the N.E. trade-wind, which blows between the parallels of 10° and 25° N., and, her course being W., she would be carried with a fair and steady breeze directly to her destina- tion. On the return voyage from China to the entrance of the canal, a ship would at once run up to between 30° and 40° N., so as to be clear of the region of the N.E. trade-wind, and avail herself of the strong W. winds that prevail between those parallels to steer an E. course to the coast of Mexico. There she would meet the N. land-wind, which would carry her with a flowing sheet down to the Isthmus. On a passage out to Australia a ship would, after leaving the canal, enter a narrow track extending from 10° to 4° N., in which the winds are variable. Having crossed this, she would enter the region of the S.E. trade-wind, which would be a fair wind, her course being W.S.W. Having passed the southern limit of this wind, in 23° S. latitude, she would enter the region ISTHMUS OF DAEIEN AND THE SHIP CANAL. 119 of the N.W. wind, which would also be favourable to her course. On her return from Australia she might at once run up into the S.E. trade, in Lat. 23° S., from whence, her course being about E.N.E., she would have a perfectly fair wind all the way. Or she might run down part of her easting within the limits of the N.W. wind, and then run up into the S.E. trade, by doing which she would have the wind a couple of })oints more free. The vast saving of time by the adoption of this passage, which will enable ships to make two or three voyages in the same period that they now take to make one, the saving of expense in their navigation, of wear and tear, of interest on the value of ship and cargo, of insurance of ship, cargo and freight, and the great diminution of shipwreck and loss of life by sea, will effect a complete, but beneficial, revolution in commerce. Not only will a great saving of time be effected by the direct diminution of distance to be traversed between Europe and the E. coast of America, on the one side, and the W. coast of America, China, Japan, Australia, &c., on the other, and vice versdj but also by the avoidance of the loss of time occasioned by calms in the low latitudes, hard gales off the capes, and the very long tacks to the eastward and westward which vessels are now obliged to make, in beating against the S.E. trade in the South Atlantic, or the N.E. or S. W. monsoon in the China seas. By the proposed canal all those causes of delay will be obviated, and fair, steady winds, smooth seas, and pleasant weather throughout the voyage — both out and home — may be fairly cal- culated upon. Nor are the benefits resulting from increased intercourse and proximity the only advantages which may be hoped for. The safety of life and property will be greatly increased, the hard- ships of thousands of mariners will be lessened to an incalculable extent, and the facilities for benefiting our fellow-creatures will be greatly multiplied. The gold discoveries in California and Australia have imparted an impulse to ocean navigation, to the results of which it is im- possible to assign any limits ; nor, until the Darien Canal is completed, can we estimate the effect it will have in diverting the commerce between the E. and W. hemispheres from the old routes. That by Cape Horn will be totally abandoned, and that by the Cape of Good Hope will be preferred only by vessels bound to the hither side of the Straits of Malacca. To all countries lying farther east — to China, Japan, Australia,