and the enormous floods of water rushing down by that stream, which drains an area of some 1,400 square miles, discharging in the dry season, at its first point of contact with the line of the canal, 15 cubic metres of water, but

in the wet season, 4,670 metres per second, cause a sudden rise in the Chagres river of from 20 to 50 feet in height! This water is precipitated from the steep

In November, 1879, there was an unusual rainfall and flood of the river Chagres, stopping the railway traffic, the river rising over 40 feet, and covering the line in parts with more than 10 feet of water.

ravines and high mountains, the torrents concentrating suddenly, and often without warning, in the main outlet. I have seen a good deal of torrential streams in various tropical countries, and from my experience, both as an engineer and traveller, have learnt to appreciate their dangerous character, but nowhere-neither in Burmah, India, IndoChina, or South Africa, all of which I know well-have I seen anything more formidable than the Chagres river. The tropical rains in Central America are the most serious obstacle to the construction and maintenance of a canal, which must be out of reach of sudden and excessive inundations. This object could never be accomplished at Panama, with the channel bed at the sea-level. Neither is a lock canal, in my opinion, possible, for a canal with locks or lifts must have at its highest level an abundant, safe and controllable supply of water, and this can only be had in Central America on the Nicaragua route. There it already exists in perfection.

These facts regarding Panama clearly indicate the wide and radical difference in the conditions existing between that route and Nicaragua, and it is idle, as will later be more fully demonstrated, for the adverse critics of the projected canal to contend that the failure of the Panama scheme proved the impossibility of the Nicaraguan or any isthmian canal. That project was defeated by local difficulties, mainly by the uncontrolled giant floods of the Chagres river, which hold undisputed sway over this route, and by the Culebra cut, the character of which had never been properly ascertained.

THE TEHUANTEPEC SHIP-RAILWAY.

This project for a ship-railway across the isthmus at Tehuantepec, in Southern Mexico, was conceived and advocated with great energy and ability by Eads, who succeeded in converting to his view a large number of engineers and men of a scientific cast of mind in various parts of the world, although he had the consensus of public opinion,-" the common-sense of mankind," as his opponents in the United States termed it,-opposed to. him. With his death, however, the scheme fell out of favour, and no successor has taken his place. Eads was a man not only of commanding talents as an engineer, but of that rare class of resourceful, magnetic, persuasive personalities, equipped with boundless courage, vitality, and energy in face of all difficulties, of whom de Lesseps was such a striking example. Lesseps, it is too often forgotten, was not an engineer, either in the professional meaning of the word, or even in a much broader sense.

'The report of the House Committee on Commerce contained the following:

"In this connection, however, it is but proper to say that in the opinion of the most able and well-known engineers, naval architects, and ship-builders of the world, the construction of a ship-railway at Tehuantepec, in accordance with the plans which have been submitted. to them by Mr. Eads, is entirely practicable. Indeed, many of these experts go much further than this, and declare that a railway is preferable to a canal;-first, in the economy with which it can be constructed; second, in the facility with which it may be enlarged when commerce demands its enlargement; third, in the economy with which it can be operated; and fourth, in its ability to transport vessels with greater rapidity and less delay."

His brilliant plan was to take ships bodily from one ocean to the other on a four-fold steel-laid track, drawn by as many locomotives abreast. The length of the line was to be 154 miles; the termini Salina Cruz, on the Pacific Ocean, and Barra, on the Gulf of Mexico; the maximum height to be crossed, 755 feet above sea-level. Extraordinary as was his proposed undertaking, it is by no means beyond the range of possibility, and has one great advantage, that of being built above the floods, while a canal must be beneath them. There is, in fact, at the present moment a similar ship-railway now in progress, and about three-fourths already built, though on a much smaller scale, it is true, which will probably pave the way for other works of a similar nature. This littleknown work, the Chignecto ship-railway, connecting the navigation of the Bay of Fundy with the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is 17 miles in length, and will be capable of carrying ships weighing 2,000 tons.

The concession granted by the Government of Mexico to Eads was for a period of fourteen years from 6th May, 1881. The cost, estimated at £3,750,000 ($18,750,000), was to be refunded at the rate of £250,000 ($1,250,000) per annum, should the profits exceed £750,000 ($3,750,000) per annum. An ordinary railway, 190 miles in length,planned by Eads to be used as a "service" line to aid in the construction of his ship-railway-has actually been carried out by the Mexican Government, and recently opened from ocean to ocean, though much is still wanting to make the line thoroughly serviceable. In order to render it valuable for the purposes of inter-oceanic railway

traffic it will be necessary not only to alter the character of the railway but to improve the two harbours. To complete all this will involve, it has been estimated, an expenditure of $8,000,000 (gold), and it is said that these improvements will be provided within the next three

years.

When Eads, some sixteen years ago, had just completed his great work at the mouth of the Mississippi,'— which provided a splendid navigable channel for the largest ocean vessels,-standing one day on the last of the finished jetties with his assistant, Mr. Elmer L. Corthell, after gazing long across the Gulf, he exclaimed, “We must next discharge the commercial volume of the Mississippi into the Pacific Ocean." The last eight years of his life were given to the task of conceiving and perfecting the plans for his inter-oceanic ship-railway, and

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The channel of the Mississippi, below New Orleans, was seriously obstructed, especially by the bars at its mouth, and a commission of army engineers had recommended that a canal should be built, by which the bar would be avoided. Eads vigorously opposed this plan and undertook to increase the depth of the channel in the south-west pass (then only 14 feet) to 30 feet, and thus to maintain an open mouth for the river. This he proposed to do by the "jetty system," engaging not to demand any pay for the services of himself and his associates until a stable depth of 20 feet should have been secured. He was required to apply his system to the south pass, which had two bars, with depths of 8 and 14 feet respectively. In the course of five years he here created a channel 200 feet wide and 26 feet deep, with a central depth of not less than 30 feet, which has since been maintained at a moderate expense in excellent condition. Eads also advocated the application of his jetty system to the improvement of the Mississippi channel as far north as St. Louis, believing that by securing a fixed width a uniformity of depth could also be maintained.