he work by the government.

If the present owners of the concessions from Nicaragua and Costa
Rica will not accept a reasonable price for their privileges and
for the work done, to be fixed by an impartial tribunal, it is
better for the United States to withdraw any offer of aid; but if
they will accept such an award the United States should take up
the work and realize the dream and hopes of Columbus. At present
the delay of action by Congress grows out of the fact that no
detailed scientific survey of the route has been made by the engineer
corps of the United States. The only approach to such a survey
was the one made by A. G. Menocal, an accomplished civil engineer
of the navy, but it was felt that this was not sufficient to justify
the United States in undertaking so great and expensive a work.
In accordance with this feeling the 53rd Congress directed the
Secretary of War to cause a thorough survey to be made and to submit
a full report to the next Congress, to convene December 2, 1895.
This survey is now in progress and will no doubt largely influence
the future action of Congress.

A brief description of the canal proposed may be of interest to
those who have not studied the geography and topography of its
site, though it is difficult to convey by writing and without maps
an adequate conception of the work. It is apparent, according to
Menocal's surveys, that the physical difficulties to be overcome
are not greater than those of works of improvement undertaken within
our own country, for the highest part of the water way is to be
only 110 feet above the two oceans--a less altitude than that of
the base of the hills which surround the city of Washington. The
works proposed include a system of locks, similar in character to
the one built by the United States at the falls of Sault Ste. Marie
and to those constructed by Canada around the falls of Niagara.
A single dam across the San Juan River, 1,250 feet long and averaging
61 feet high, between two steep hills, will insure navigable water,
of sufficient depth and width for the commerce of the world, to a
length of 120 miles. The approaches to this level, though expensive,
are not different from similar works, and will be singularly
sheltered from floods and storms. Of the distance of 169.4 miles
from ocean to ocean, 142.6 miles are to be accomplished by slack-
water navigation in lake, river, and basins, and only 26.8 miles
by excavated canal. The greates