ms to the same deadly
climate which had given Porto Bello and the isthmus generally their evil
reputation. However, the railway was completed in 1864, at the enormous
cost of $7,500,000, although its length is only 47-1/2 miles. Thus one
part of the great project was carried out, and a good road provided for
passengers and light goods, the annual value of which latter is now
about L15,000,000.

But those in favour of a canal were not sleeping all this time. The old
routes were again mooted, that through Lake Nicaragua being put down at
194 miles in length, while the other, since known as the Panama, was
only 51. Dr. Edward Cullen, however, in 1850 went out and made some
surveys, with the result that he advocated the old Darien line as the
shortest and most practicable. He would start from the same Port de
Escoces that witnessed the downfall of William Paterson's scheme, and
which he said was a most commodious harbour for the terminus of a canal.
The isthmus was here only 39 miles across, and free from many of the
difficulties which beset the other routes.

As a result of Dr. Cullen's reports, in 1852 it was proposed to
establish "The Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company," with a capital of
fifteen millions sterling. The prospectus stated that the period had
arrived when the spread of commerce and the flow of emigration to the
western shores of America, Australasia, and China, demanded a passage
more direct than those by way of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn.
Various projects had been formed for uniting the two oceans, but all
these were open to the objection that they fell short of supplying a
continuous channel from sea to sea, for vessels of all dimensions, by
which alone transhipment could be obviated. Sir Charles Fox, Mr. John
Henderson, Mr. Thomas Brassey, and Dr. Cullen had received a concession
of territory from New Ganada to the extent of 200,000 acres, on
condition that a deposit of L24,000 be made within twelve months. It was
believed that the work could be completed for twelve millions.

The _Times_ spoke disparagingly of the new Company, and this probably
prevented its acceptance by the financial world. The line, it said, had
not been actually surveyed, but only superficially examined, and, after
all, if it were finished, it could only come into competition with the
Nicaragua Canal, every foot of which had been the subject of precise
estimates, and which would only cost _four millions_. Several lette