IMPORTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1204, 7 June 1872, Page 2

IMPORTS.

Per Elizabeth Curie, from Wellington 240 telegraph posts, 8 tons wire, order.

Yesterday was a blank shipping day, the weather being such that no work could be done on tbe wharf, and there being neither arrivals nor departures. The greatest barrier to navigation from one side of tho globe to the other, is the long and rugged isthmus which connects North and South America. This can be spanned by railroads without any vast difficulty, but the barrier would then only be reduced, not removed. If it comes within the power of the engineer to cut through that bar in the pathway of commerce, and allow vessels to pass without discharging their freight, such an achievment would eclipse in grandeur anything that has . been done in this age of wondrous mechanical exploits. Two surveys have been going on during the past year to ascertain the feasibility of this undertaking — one at Darien, and one at Tehauntepec. The report of the chief engineer of the Tehauntepec expedition is accompanied by twenty maps and profiles and many calculations intended to show that a ship canal across the isthmus is not only practicable, but that the obstacles in its way are of the most ordinary character. A canal can start, he Bays, at the head waters of ship navigation on the Coatzacoalcos river, follow the valley of its chief boundary, and the dividing range of Tnrifa, and thence descend through the pass of Tarifa, and cross the plains to Salina Cruz, on the Pacific. The whole distance would be 172 miles, in the course of which 732 feet of elevation would have to be overcome by locks. Commander Selfridge at Darien has also found a pathway for navigation from sea to sea. He would ascend the river Atrato from tbe Gulf of Darien to tbe mouth of the Napipi, 150 miles. The Atrato is navigable all this distance for vessels of the largest size, so that a canal is necessary for only 32 miles, from the mouth of the Napipi to Cupice Bay on the Pacific side. Twenty-three miles of this space is a flat plain, with a rise of only ninety feet, and no difficulties to overcome. All so far is commonplace, and there is nothing to excito the determination and pluck of a Yankee, but the rest of the, way presents something worthy of his attention. The proposed canal is suddenly stopped by a beetling ridge of hills 600 feet high, and in order to reach tho ocean it must be severed. For three miles there must be a cut of 125 feet deep, and the remaining five miles of rock must be tunnelled. Here is something worth while, but after Mount Cenis and the Hooaac Bore it is not enough to intimidate American enterprine and darintr.— New York World. Another ironclad has been in jeopardy. Her Majesty's ship Lord Clyde, in going to the assistance of a vessel which had stranded on the island of »Pantellnria, between Sicily and the coast of Tunis, was driven ashore by a strong enrrent. As soon as the news of the disaster reached Malta, the Enchantress, the Lord Warden, and Research started for Pantellaria, and the Lord Warden succeeded in getting the stranded vessel off the island. She has received some damage to her rudder-post and machinery. Captain M: Tweedie, X, A ., has addressed an important and valuable suggestion to the Royal Artillery Institution for iron-plating a cruising ship so as to avoid the disadvantage appertaining to iron-plated vessels generally, and to provide a comfortable seagoing ship. At present, he thinks, neither the ironclad nor the wooden ship fulfils the necessary conditions. Having got to the limit of ironplating on the outside of a ship, and yet having a gun able to pierce it, he proposes to put the armour of cruising ships inside. His plan is to spring an arch or dome of iron inboard from the sides of the ship below the water-line, the top of the dome rising a little above the surface, covering in the engines, the lower deck and store-rooms being divided into a series of water-tight compartments. This, he contends, would give additional strength to the ship, and, however much her hull might be knocked abour., she conld not sink, unless the arch were penetrated, which, owing to its staapo, would be nearly impossible. He also makes suggestions as" to the armament and ventilation of tbe ship ; but his xaain idea is to make a cruiser which shall be virtually unsinkable.