THE INTEROCEANIC SHIP CANAL.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 530, 29 February 1876, Page 3

THE INTEROCEANIC SHIP CANAL.

(Pall Mall Budget.)

The “Interoceanic Ship Canal” is now the subject of general interest in the United States. This projected canal is to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Commissioners appointed by the President to report as to the respective merits of the various routes surveyed for the canal have jusc made their report. They are of opinion, after a full investigation, that the Nicaragua route is the best, and they estimate that the canal from the harbour of Brito, on the Pacific, to Greytown, on the Atlantic, can be constructed at a total cost of 66,000,000 dols. Objections of an almost insurmountable character were found in all but the Panama and Nicaragua routes, and they give the preference to the latter, notwithstanding its greater length of nearly 181 miles, on the ground of its being the only route where the climate is not dangerous to health. In the lower routes the malaria would destroy the greater portion of the workmen before the canal conld be completed. It is, too, the only mute where an unfailing and proper supply of water can be found. The Commissioners, after referring to the importance of the problem of connecting the two oceans, which has occupied the attention of statesmen and navigators for centuries, add that it is of the highest importance that the United States should take some action at once to carry out the feasible plans of the ship canal in order to prevent either England or France from coming in and reaping the honour and profit of this great enterprise. The results of the work cannot, they say, be fully estimated, but doubtless when the canal is completed, nearly one-half of the carrying trade of the world will be revolutionised. One item alone it is thought will make the building of the canal a good investment^—namely, the shipment of Californian products to Europe and the ports upon the Atlantic coast, but more especially to Europe. Large quantities of wheat shipped from California to the European markets will pass through the canal instead of going round by Cape Horn.