Show au A CANA L what atwould it would cost and what it would pay I 1 I 1 A question president cleveland Cley eland must soon deal X l do le lesseps s 0 isthmus project the ta ie question growing owing gr out of tho the proposed construction ot of the nicaragua canal must soon demand the serious or of president Clev elands wi ministration in view of this fact a brief sketch of the Jio fr project ilij act c will be of special inget inte tent at t thia time the tile idea of the construction of a canal across nicaragua by unit ing the san juan and del medio rivers rivers I 1 IS S over a century old says mr E platt stratton a former naval engineer in the government bervice aho vho haa has traveled extensively in nicaragua and is familiar with the country through which til the deaha cabal 1 I would pass prior to 1784 two british army officers made secret surveys of two routes possible ble for euch such a waterway and t boyear abobo W mentioned captain wm afterward lord Nels nelson attempted I 1 0 to o occupy the country for the construction of a ship canal the project was waa a fruitful source of diplomatic discussion between the american and british governments during the next seventy years when the tild crimean war the indian mutiny and the war of secession placed the canal question in temporary ec eclipse lipec the feasibility of tha plan the cost of dofita its construction the tile ditto of its completion the and climatic difficulties to be ano the political com eions growing out of the question are some to be considered before the nicaraguan pro eject can reach a final solution PLAN the plan proposed is that of ofa A G menocal an american officer office who is now on the ground witha party final surveys the atlantic terminus of the canal is the little village of san juan de nicaragua or Grey town from which point a cut of of twenty miles over a level country brings us to the san juan river the latter stream is inter intersect secA at a point just above tho rib rio colorado from this point poin t the route is up the san juan to lake nicaragua thence across the lake 0 to o the 66 little del medio river from the lake a cut of 1633 16 33 miles brings us to the pacific tho the whole length of th the a route is 19 milca miles of which miles will be by the lake undone two rivers the remaining miles of the canal proper pro re no serious engineering tiffi biffi cultist cul tiet in ascending the san juan val and y az hi to firbee ct three short stretches stretchy in I 1 order to get around the rapids the whole length of these stretches being 3 51 miles but Butt these heie locks present no special problems lems and the real work begins on the further side of the lake with the task of getting down feet within a distance of seven teen milea miles through a mountain range at lensi five locks will be bb necessary and for the first five miles the cut must be atlease at least dred feet fe et in depth for the re il Maini tig distance the work is much lighter and the difficulties to be en countered simple compared with thosa xon confronting fronting M de lesseps Les sepa en engineers queers at panama pam ama kha the little baw bay at itt br brito I 1 alto must be made into a its harbor and the harbor at grey town dredged out twenty five years ia ago the latter place placa had a goad harbor but since that time it has has been choked up aply iy ay deli deposits sits from t the san juan river As the gill sill eo cornea in 6 f rom a point below the canal its outflow could eacy be stomped stopped by dosing c up u P the moi tir of b the tile am 1 1 edream WHAT IT ir WILL nill COST cosi the lowest estimate odthe cost is is t Chil dsa a prominent angi neer er in the surveys of thirty years n 0 who placed it ata at t lo highest estimate is that ofa of A G menocal but if it t be placed in rolind m B umbers at af JL there ere is still a large margin of dif ference ence between the Nicor and y anama mama schemes in 1880 al de lesseps cati estinia mated ted the total cost of ot the e panama canalaz cana lat 1 fugua inca but when h en the fourth and last kaaua igau na of bonds was made the had reached francs boget together h er with 30 3 franca francs interest chissum this sum is above the first esti male mite of de lesseps and still only one f fifth of the work A is s completed the burca as to the cost of the nicaragua projects aroesti are estimates only they are itri p based upon twenty at eur irve yeya while delesseps deles cepa ventured upon liis his estimates after merely a cursory examination ap pp of t e aou antry n t ry the constant dols t a lit floods i 0 the river r ve r will vi 1 1 lecessi ne ces essi sil construction of a dam one tate the i mile c long mg and feet high to construct et which w would cost as 11 i and yet when all this is is will afford only lya partial protection the flood Hof of tho the chagres chagares Ch agres in a recent coave conversa row t alon on do lesseps assured me ahat he had not yet solved the problem oi of how to protect the canal against the waters of the chagres chagares Ch agres in nicaragua an easy climate and moderate rainfall remove all difficulties of this ibis kind contrast this with the ch climate mate of panama where 0 of the pars pam ty of thirty who went with dingier dingler only twenty were aliye at the beginning of ti the e second year and with the tile fact that hundreds of the officials and workmen of the pana ma company die Annu annually alY votia of the engineer eer experts or workmen in nicaragua have suffered gysi physically cally and th the death rate ii far ar below that of other tropical countries the material in for foi the construction of the jock dams etc ete and support of themert is close at hand bind a at t nicaragua and ind the completion of the waterway to ahe the pacific will open up for or settlement a country of vast resources and exceptional ce 1 dional healthfulness I although the nicaragua plan involves eleven locks and the idea of a tide water canal isi alluring a tariff of charges one h half alf th that it of f panama w would bear the ga same ratio 6 to the investment the largest laries f lock in the world I 1 is i s that of the st marys falls canal which is 80 feet wide and feet between gates the te pass passage age is made in in seventeen I 1 ini minutes with five minutes for loc lock approaches making twenty two minutes for Ide locking kinga a yaw but bue all allowing full 11 thirty ha oper operation tio forty eight vess vessels cis co could pitt be passed in a day gi giving ving them themi an average of 2000 tons tone with transit days in a year we have I 1 a rk possible annual p passage a of 28 00 tons in I 1 1883 the he ca canal af passed tons and paid handsomely this delay of lait sextor r eight hours in lock locking ingis ia more than off beet by th the absence of trade winds along the atlantic panama chait WILL V ILL TWO fana AY on one e canal across the narrow strip separating the two bouti continents neno I 1 would corta certainly i in y pay a y and should the nicaragua iscaragua icar agua 91 highway have a mono monopoly p oly of the trade it would rival aval t the he suez canal in profitableness with two canals ho however 4 ia is a nice question whether one would kill the other the estimates of the Pa panama nants financiers assuming an aggregate cost of 20 1 and a cHay goof bf twelve t billings a ton show an aminti annual al profit of menocal ori on an annual business of tan a and a charge of eight shilling aton ton showed a handsome profit on jho the invest investment men t the bulk bathe trade to 0 be done is to and from american port and would thus us employ the big highway nearest the bual state the grain trade pacific states n aggregates tons annually and vessels with coal iron and ballast d abd another A total tonnage of four millions at eight shillings a ton would yield a re venuel or a return of more thaur th anJIe fite per cent on th first cost coit b only ofil the trade al of isag land would seek the panama route route the voyage to the sou couth ih american ports age being eang thereby shortened 1500 miles the distance to sydney by way of agn panama ma is 0 adle miles ar or 1000 longer than the sl suez c canal an af route abc should auld the entire en tire trade 0 of athe the european coup countries tries with peru chili chill new zealand and ind hawaii seek the panama route witha with a tou nage charge ofel of ghi shillings it could not pay expenses and interest while a charge of sixteen shillings would be required to produce a dividend so high a tariff would draye even this trade td ta the nicaragua a t route it was the conscious noss of this baci which cb madof shares take sucha ouch a drop as soon as the nicaragua canal was proposed it M at once perceived that such a canal meant bank bankruptcy Y i to the paw panama unit scheme e hank of a dam H d anil lelong nn and fe feet t high bight T thea d n bridge donly e abeth 1 1 t water the panama a canal anal is no thing buta gig gigantic antio job |