CENTEAL AMERICAN SHIP CANAL.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 28, 2 July 1874, Page 2

CENTEAL AMERICAN SHIP CANAL.

(From the " Times," February 27.) Commander Lull, who was charged by the United States Navy Department with the conduct of an expedition to survey the route for a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to make use of Nicaragua Lake, has presented his report to the Secretary of the Navy. The lake is in the southwestern part of the State of Nicaragua, and is described as from 90 to 110 miles long, and 35 or -10 miles wide. It is separated from the Pacific by a narrow strip of land, and a union might be effected by a canal from the lake to the harbor of Brito, a distance of a little over 1G miles. The highest elevation met with is 134 ft above mean high lake ; eleven locks are proposed to meet the difference of level, the lake being 108 feet higher than the sea. On the eastern side of the lake use may be made of its outlet, the river San Juan, for above sixty of the 108 miles, the distance to the Carribboan Sea, and a canal, with locks, would continue the line to the harbor of San Juan del Norte, or Greytown, as the lower part of,

the river is subject to sudden and violent freshets. The surveys were conducted under ifficnltieß. In the western section " nearly verybody suffered from innumerable itching ores, produced partly by dietetic, and posibly by climatic causes, but mainly by the ites and stings of insects, and the poisonings of different vines and plants. Although the region in which the parties were; operating contained several estates more or less cultivated, yet by far the greater part of the line was through an unbroken virgin forest, the rank tropical vegetation in many places forming a perfect, jungle. Occasionally were met large areas filled with the terrible pica-pica, as it is called by the natives. It is a tall bush loaded with a kind of bean, whose pods are covered with down consisting of minute barbed needles. They are detached from the bush at the least shake given to it, and alighting upon the person produce perfect torture, seeming to penetrate through the clothing as easily as into the unprotected parts of the skin"; the sensation produced is exactly like that of fire. It was sometimes found impossible to cut through the pica-pica at all, and slight deflections of the line were caused by it several times. It is only at certain seasons that the pica-pica is so troublesome, and the expedition experienced it at its worst." In the eastern section the valley of the San Juan was found almost entirely uninhabited. " The line led through an unbroken virgin forest, so interlaced with parasites and undergrowth as to be almost impenetrable, and in most cases altogether so without the vigorous use of the machcta, making it necessary to cut a trail for every foot of advance, passing sometimes three or four times a day over hills of greater or less height, and through streams in every valley. Insects, lizards, &c, had been so common from the first that the most of them had ceased to be annoying. Mosquitoes at night, and in the swamps at all times ; and by day wasps, hornets, and large flies, particularly a large yellow species, which drew the blood every time it alighted upon the skin. Another of the pests of nearly every camp was the alligator ant, which attains a length of nearly an inch, and whose bite is as painful as the sting of the hornet, and apparently even more poisonous. Among the many favors which had been bestowed upon us by Mr Eunnels and his family, of Virgin Bay, was a present to each officer of a cedren bean, said to be a certain remedy for the bites of venomous snakes or the sting of the tarantulas ; fortunately, we never had occasion to test its merits, though there were many narrow escapes. Parasite vines of all sizes and colors, and festooned in every imaginable form, were so common that a snake hanging from a limb of a tree would often be unnoticed by the officers and sailors, though never by the macheteos, who seemed to be on the constant look-out for them. Occasionally, one of the former would suddenly feel himself seized and jerked back, and would find that the keen eye and the strong arm of one of the Natives had rescued him from an enemy that he himself had not seen, though perhaps looking directly towards it, and not a yard from it." Commander Lull goes on to say : " There is a very general impression abroad that the whole American isthmus' is exceedingly unhealthy, and this, as I conceive, very incorrect idea is entertained by many intelligent persons who have spent longer or shorter periods upon the isthmus. It is true that in former years a large percentage of foreigners who remained upon 1 the isthmus died or were broken down in health, but nine out of ten of these cases were due to dissipation or the neglect of the simplest sanitary precautions or generally to, both. There have been during the last four years three exploring expeditions in Darien and two in Nicaragua. There have been as high as 300 men employed at once, counting ships' companies, subjected to severe labour and exposure. Not a single officer or man has been lost from climatic disease. The population of Nicaragua is variously estimated at from 250,000 to 300,000, and consists of whites, Indians, and negroes, and of mixed blood in all degrees. Many of the Indians are civilised. There are several tribes, however, in as savage a state as when the country was first discovered. These occupy the northeastern part of the territory. Nicaragua and the neighbouring States would supply from 3000 to 5000 laborers. Nicaragua is full of undeveloped sources of wealth. Indigo, coffee, and cocoa, all of excellent quality, are cultivated and exported to some extent. Sugar is raised, but the machinery used in its manufacture is of the rudest character, and the article produced of very poor quality, though the cane is rich enough to rival the best in the world. Corn, beans, rice, yams, cassava root, quiquisque, a superior kind of yam, tobacco, plantains, bananas, oranges, limes, pineapples, mangoes, water melon, canteloupes, tomatoes, cocoanuts, nisleras, peppers, and numerous other fruits and vegetables grow in |all parts of the country, and almost spontaneously. Gold and silver are found in paying quantities." The cost of an inter-oceanic ship canal by the route above described is estimated at 61,400,000 dollars. It is stated that the lake would furnish a supply of water for both branches of the canal practically inexhaustible. The two branches would be connected by fiftysix miles of lake navigation.