THE COURIER
OBSERVATIONS
BY SARAH B. HARRIS
Nicaragua or Panama
THE commission appointed hy
President McKlnley has made
Its report of the Isthmian canal
route. The work of the commission
included a. survey of other routes be
sides Panama and Nicaragua, but It
is well understood that no other routes
will be considered by congress.
The former engineer-ln-chlef of the
Panama route, Mr. Philippe Bunau
Varilla, recently delivered an address
to the chamber of commerce of New
York on the relative merits of the Nic
aragua and Panama routes. His ad
dress is based on the preliminary re
port of the Isthmian canal com
mission of H00 and the report of
the Nlcaraguan canal commission, 1817
to 1899. The figures in his address
which are not taken from these two
American reports are compiled from
the report of the Technical commission
of the new Panama canal company,
which contains the names of some of
our most distinguished American hy
draulic engineers.
In regard to the respective lengths
of the two canals: total length of
Nicaragua canal navigation, 120.33
miles plus 6C miles in free, deep wa
ter in river and lake, making a total
length of 1SG.53 miles from ocean to
ocean. Of the 120.53 miles of canal,
22.96 miles will consist of an artific
ial channel dug below the bottom of
Nicaragua lake, and 27.96 miles will
consist of an artificial channel dug
through the sand and silt below the
bottom of the upper San Juan river, 16
miles below the bed of the river. At
Panama there are only 3S miles of
canal navigation proper and seven
miles of deep-water navigation through
the artificial lake which will be formed
by the Bohio dam.
The deepest cut in the Panama route
will be only 110 feet. On the Nicarag
ua route there is one cut 297 feet deep
and two other deep ones, 21S and 170
feet deep resepctively.
As to. the relative difficulty of con
structing the dams, which are a char
acteristic feature of both canals, Mr.
Bunau-Varilla quotes the Isthmian
Canal Commission as stating that the
Bohlo dam can be built of earth as
well as of masonry, whereas the great
dam across the San Juan river at
Boca San Carlos would be the most
difficult engineering work in connec
tion with the project, since it would
necessitate compressed air foundations
to a depth of 100 feet below low-water
level of the river, and would have a
total height of 150 feet from crest to
foundation.
At Nicaragua nine .locks must be
built in the neighborhood of volcanoes
where seismic disturbances are con
stant. At Panama only five are neces
sary. At Nicaragua ships will have to
be lifted by the complicated, heavy,
jiiid yet delicate machinery of the
locks 110 feet. The Panama locks
must lift the ocean liners only 90
feet. And the Panama locks can be
built on solid rock. Only five of the
nine Nicaragua locks can have this
advantage.
The San Juan river whose waters
will be jwured into. the Nicaragua
canal, has a much larger water-shed
than the Chagres river, which will
flow Into the Panama canal. From
two to one-half times more rain falls
in the Nicaragua district. Conse
quently the water that must pass off is
much greater and generates stronger
currents.
The Nicaragua canal will receive the
waters of the tributary rivers Frio
and Poco Sol whose sources are on the
slopes of the volcanic range. Mr. Bunau-Varilla
asked the question, "What
disposal will be made of the enormous
deposits of sediment brought down by
this river and emptied into the canal?
Not to mention the amount of sedi
ment deposited in a channel by a vol
canic river, there Is the problem of
maintaining a channel of uniform
width and depth. Nature does not like
regular depth and width In a river bed.
The water digs Into the bed of a great
river almost soundless depths and wid
ens Itself here and there according to
unknown but surely wise laws.
Ships of the largest ocean size, of
great length, and slow maneuvering
ability are very hard to steer In shal
low waters. The currents destroy the
normal action of the helm, hence
curves should be as Infrequent as pos
sible, and where they exist, they
should have the largest possible ra
dius. The engineer said: "In examining
the two proposed canals on this basis,
we find the most extraordinary differ
ence; for while the Panama route has
twenty-five curves In a total length
of curvature of 19.5 miles, the Nlcar
ague route has eighty-two curves of a
total length of curvature of 53.5 miles.
As regards the most vital question of
radius, or ease of curves, we find that
In the Panama Canal, with the excep
tion of three curves of 8,200 feet ra
dius, all are of 10,000 feet radius, or
more, while on the contrary there are
sixty-nine curves in the Nicaragua
Canal below 8,000 feet radius, of which
no less than fifty are of 3,000 and 4,000
feet radius."
Regarding this feature, the -author
of the paper says: "It must be borne
in mind that in that part of the canal
which lies In the San Juan Kiver itself,
there will be nearly 28 miles excavated
into the bottom of the river to a depth
of 16 feet for the larger part, and that
in this portion of the route there are
forty-three curves of between 3,000 and
4,000 feet radius." He maintains that
this sharply-curving channel, opened
as it is down into silt and sand, will
be extremely difficult to maintain,
since it will necessitate constant
dredging In a river which carries dur
ing flood-time 100,000 cubic feet of wa
ter, or one-quarter the amount which
goes over Niagara Falls. "Obviously,"
says Mr. Bunau-Varllla, "ships will
meet there an accumulation of extreme
difficulties in the way of sharp curves,
heavy river currents, constant strong
winds and Impediments either from
the dredges themselves or from the
sand and silt they will have to remove.
In Panama the large and easy curves,
absence of winds, scarcity of currents
and the rarity of floods give quite a
reverse impression as to the eventual
facilities offered for navigation." With
regard to harbors, the advantage is
generally-admitted to be with Panama,
since two excellent harbors exist, one
at each terminus. At Nicaragua, on
the other hand, the Atlantic terminal
Is unsatisfactory, because of the enor
mous quantities of sand emptied into
the sea by the San Juan Itlver, and
carried across the proposed mouth of
the canal by the trade winds. The har
bor on the Pacific will also have to be
artificially constructed. Furthermore,
two additional harbors will be neces
sary at the entrance and exit of the
canal at the great inland sea of Lake
Nicaragua. Were the two canals both
finished and osen to traffic, the time
of transit by the 45-mile Panama Ca
nal would be only twelve hours, where
as by the lSS-mile Nicaragua. Canal the
time of transit will be thirty-three
hours.
3? 2r ie
Amos Judd
A new edition of an interesting book
is like a friend in a new dress. The
friend is the same, but his costume
gives him additional distinction and
dignity. Amos Judd, by Mr. J. A.
Mitchell, the editor of Life, was the
success of the year in which It was
first issued. A book can not make a
second debut. The surprised delight
of its first appearance can not be dupli
cated. If it were otherwise I do not
know of a book which deserves a
second debut more than the one named
Amos Judd.
The author has an exquisite sense of
form. The first chapter is devoted to
a deposed little - Indian prince, eight
years old, his arrival in this country,
and his adoption by Josiah Judd, a
Connecticut farmer. The second chap
ter, because the book is not a juvenile,
begins twenty years after when the
hero has been graduated from college
and has entered upon his career of
gentleman farmer. Mr. Mitchell tells
all the necessary details and even orna
ments his story with a fancy which
if allowed free growth would riot all
over the place, in two hundred and
fifty-one small pages with an average
of one hundred and forty words to the
page. To tell so complete a story in
35,140 words is a feat worth recording
In these days of Mrs. Humphrey Ward
and the "longer English novelists,"
Black and Hardy, for instance. Mr.
Cable's new story, The Cavalier, con
tains 91,745 words.
Mr. Mitchell has the genuine edi
tor's talent for conveying Information,
suggestion, and stimulating the imag
ination in few words. He refrains from
expatiating. He leaves out all the
moralizing on sin and suffering, all
theories concerning the distribution of
wealth, the immortality of the soul,
the theories of religion and the other
hundred and one subjects that essayists
have chosen to discuss In books they
call novels. For all these omissions the
people who are still fascinated by a
good story and restlessly seek It In
the essays which their authors call
novels are truly thankful.
A. fancy as rich as the ornament of
an Indian temple, and an Imagery fan
tastic and mystic is temperately used
by Mr. Mitchell. The result is a story
which fascinates by its perfect forni
and rapid action. The exiled prince
walks to his fate with the certainty
of the hero in the Greek tragedy. The
chorus is always audible even in the
days of his graceful courtship. He
dies as the chorus has said he would
die, and the consciousness of the per
fect form of the narrative and of the
inevitableness of his death is complete.
The edition Is published by Charles
Scribner's Sons with Illustrations In
color by A. I. Keller.
-V, ja Ji
? 2r e
The Cavalier
"If I tell you that," said the captain,
"you won't like me the least bit.'"
Whereat Cecile replied, "Ah well!
we cou'n' like you the leaz bit any
ow." "I suppose that's so." laughed the
officer. "I'll tell you how it was. My
guard were just about to hang me for
saying I thought we had a right to
make soldiers of the darkles, when
your friend came galloping along, saw
the thing and rushed in and cut the
halter with his sword."
"Oh, sir,'' cried Estelle, whose eyes,
brows, lashes and hair were all of the
same luminous red-brown, and in whose
cheeks the rose seemed always to burn
through the olive, "how can you and
your people seek to kill such men as
that?"
"Such as which?" asked the Yankee,
with a twinkle. "There were two
kinds."
No American writer has conveyed the
Creole character with so much charm
and accuracy as Mr. George W. Cable.
The soft gliding vowels and the ignored
consonants of the Creole patois, the
graceful, frank manners and the en
gaging personal appearance of the
Louisiana Creole suggested in "Old
Creole Days," in "Dr. Sevier," and in
all of Mr. Cable's southern stories is a
unique contribution to literature. Their
charm, their languishing ingenuous
Creole charm is truly a discovery. The
very name Creole suggests, to northern
minds, at least, Cable's men and women
whose complexions seem to be made of
two textures, the upper one a trans
parent olive and the under one a scar
let that glows and changes in the
changing lights and emotions of the
volatile, passionate sons and daughters
of southern France married to the sons
and daughters of the southern states of
DR. BENJ. F. BAILEY,
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