Speaking of the personnel of the congress, a gentleman well known in Paris wrote: "Let it be remembered that one-half of the congress were French; they had been chosen by the organizers of that assembly; 34 members belonged to the geographical or the commercial geographical society of Paris. What was their competency to decide b2tween a canal with locks or on a sea-level? Fourteen other members were engineers or assistants of some sort on the Suez canal. What was their impartiality between M. de Lesseps and others? And, among the others, if one takes account of personal friend ships and of the prestige exercised by a great name, how many more will remain?" Capt. Pim says, "The selection of a route for the proposed canal seems to have been a foregone conclusion " The parties most interested in the canal are the American stales and Eng land. England sent no official representative, but gave sir John Stokes permission to attend. The United States looked upon the congress as a meeting of capable specialists convened to discuss a matter of paramount importance, and, with this in view, appointed rear-admiral Daniel Ammen and Anecito G. Menocal, civil engineer in the U. S. navy, commissioners to represent the government officially, and placed at their disposal all relevant reports and papers which had been prepared by government officers. They had " no official powers or diplomatic functions," and no authority to state what action would be taken by their government. Commissioner Ammen abstained from voting, upon the ground that "only able engineers can form an opinion after careful study of what is actually possible, and what is relatively economical in the construction of a ship canal." At present, whatever may be the opinion of the advocates of other schemes, there appear to be two strong parties: first, those favoring a tide-level canal via Panama; and, second, those favoring the lock canal via Nicaragua, projected by Lull and 31enoeal. 31. de Les seps says an hour and a half were required for a steamship to pass through a lock which was a "vast improvement" upon older ones; therefore locks would limit the traffic of the the Nicaragua canal, and render it unprofitable. Rear-admiral Ammen states that a lock 515 ft. long, 60 ft. wide, and having a lift of 18 ft., is being built at St. Mich., through which, it is computed, a steamer will pass in 11 minutes. 31. de Lesseps thinks earthquakes would injure the locks. Admiral Ammen thinks, upon the evidence of ruined archways, that the result would not be serious, while the locks would be so constructed as to allow repairs to be made in the minimum time, and, save in four Instances, without drawing the water from the canal. Eminent scientists and engineers have made objec
tions to the Panama route, some of which they consider serious and irremediable. Com modore 31. F. Maury, LL.D., author of a work upon physical geography, and•Maury's Sailing Directions, says: "If nature, by one of her convulsions, should rend the continent of America in twain, and make a channel across the isthmus of Panama or Darien as deep and as wide and as free as the straits of Dover, it would never become a commercial thoroughfare for sailing-vessels." He also states that vessels going to or from Panama have been detained by calms for months at a time. This same great belt of calms covers all of the isthmus s. of Panama, while its effect at the mouth of the Atrato is still more vexations! The fact that the Panama railroad has not diverted sailing-vessels from their old route around cape Horn, confirms the above. Only one-third of the foreign commerce of England is carried on in steamships, and their increase is less rapid than that of sail ing-vessels, so that a large part of the shipping of the world would be excluded. The heavy rainfall of the'ChagTes valley culminated in a flood in Nov., 1879, which damaged the Panama railroad to such an extent as to cause the suspension of traffic for two or three months. Such a flood would probably have done much injury to the canal had it existed. Panama affords no materials for construction, inferior facilities for obtaining supplies and labor, has a dry season of but two or three months, and is one of the unhealthiest regions in the world. On the other hand, Nicaragua contains good building material, ample supplies, a population from which many laborers could be recruited, and it has a dry season of five or six months. It is far more healthy, especially west of the lake. The Panama route would cost 04,511,360; the Nicaragua, $65,722,137; the former would draw little or no support from the region through which it passes, while the latter would develop a country rich in the productions of the three kingdoms of nature. The concession for the Panama route granted by the United States of Colombia is controlled by M. de Lesseps, who organized a company and opmied books in Europe and America to receive subscriptions. Some steps have been taken in America to organize the Nicaragua canal company, the presidency of which was offered to gen. U. S. Grant by admiral Ammen. Mr. Joseph Nimmo, chief of the bureau of statistics, thinks the present commerce insufficient to support the canal. Whether this be true or not, the question is one not of desirability nor of feasibility, but one of the time when to build, and of its safety as a financial investment.