416 REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


 Garella advocated a canal as the oniy adequate means of communication across the Isthmus. Adopting Lloyd's suggestion, he favored the bay of Limon as the Atlantic terminus, his line reaching the hagres a little below the mouth of the Gatun. No such low depression across the divide as had been reported could be found, and he reported two projects, one for crossing by a tunnel under the divide, the other by a deep, open cut. The summit level of the canal, in the tunnel project, was to be 158 feet above extreme high tide in Panama Bay, and was to be reached by 18 locks on the Atlantic side and 16 on the Pacific side, and supplied with water from the Chagres through lateral canals. The Pacific terminus was to be at Yaca de Monte, about 12 miles southwest of Panama. The estimated cost was about $25,000,000. In the open-cut project the summit cut was to be 275 feet deep and the water level in it about 50 feet higher than in the tunnel canal. The estimated cost of building this project was about $28,000,000. The canal in either case was to be 23 feet deep and accommodate vessels 198 feet long, 45 feet beam, and 21 feet draft. This report was disappointing to the holders of the concession, which was allowed to lapse. With the discovery of gold in California in 1848 the Panama crossing, following the Chagres to Las Cruces and the old Spanish road to Panama, became immediately one of the principal links of communication between the Eastern States and the mining regions. A treaty had already been negotiated between the United States and the Republic of New Granada and concluded in December, 1846, securing the right of transit across the Isthmus of Panama, although ratifications were not exchanged until June, 1848. In May, 1847, while ratifications were pending, the Republic granted to the Panama Company, a French company represented by Mateo Kline, the exclusive privilege for ninety-nine years of building a railroad across the Isthmus, but this company failed to carry out its obligations land the concession was declared forfeited. Subsequently, in December, 1848, the concession, with some modifications, was renewed in favor of Messrs. Aspinwall, Stephens, and Chauncey, who, with their associates, under the name of the Panama Railroad Company, built the railroad from Aspinwall, or Colon, to Panama, and opened it for traffic early in 1855. Subsequently modifications of the concession were made, and in its modified form the Republic agreed to grant no privilege during the term of ninety-nine years from August 16, 1867, to any Other company or person to open any other railroad or any maritime canal to the west of a line drawn from Cape Irburon, on the Atlantic coast, to Cape Garachine, on the Pacific; nor to establish any such communication itself. This gave the railroad company exclusive control of the Panama route.
 The railroad, however, did not fully meet the necessity for better communication between the oceans, and the demand for a waterway at some point remained unabated. In 1869, in his first message to Congress as President, General Grant took strong ground in its favor, and Congress immediately authorized surveys across the American Isthmus at several localities. In -March, 1872, in pursuance of ano ther act of Congress the work was placed under the direction of a commission consisting Of Gen. A. A. Humphreys, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army; C. P. Patterson, Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Comnmodore Daniel Amimen, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation of the United States Navy. The survey of the Panama route was placed under the charge of Capt. Edward P. Lull, U. S. Navy, and was made in 1875. He reported in favor of a line which followed the general direction of the Panama Railroad from the bay of Limon to Chagres, thence up this stream and the Obispo to the divide, thence by the valley of the Rio Grande to Corozal, and thence to the Pacific west of the city of Panama. This line, with some modifications, has been followed subsequently.
 In May, 1876, Lieut. L. N. B. Wyse, as the representative of a French company, entered into a contract with the Colombian Government which, as modified and extended two years later, gave him and his associates the exclusive privilege for ninety-nine years of constructing and operating a canal between the oceans anywhere in the Republic; providing, however, that if such canal should be located within the territory covered by the concession to the Panama Railroad Company an amicable arrangement should be made with that company. 4
 In accordance with the provisions of the Wyse contract, an "International Scientific Congress was convened at Paris in May, 1879, to determine upon the general route of the proposed canal, and it was decided that the best route was from the bay of Limon to the bay of Panama.


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