Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/498

middle of the 19th century it was seen that nothing but a systematic and scientific treatment of the problem would avail, and one of the first to realize this was the late Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen, U.S.N. He had sought permission from the Navy Department to take charge of a party to explore the Isthmus of Panama early in the fifties, but was refused. Soon after this, civil war broke out in the country, and the navy had its hands too full to consider other than military matters. Hardly had the war ceased, however, before Ammen took up the problem and, enlisting the influence of his great friend, General Grant, he hammered away at it until the day of his death. Fortunately, Ammen was succeeded in that office of the Navy Department having charge of such matters by Rear Admiral John G. Walker, U.S.N. His earnest interest in the subject is demonstrated by the fact that he is now the President of the Isthmian Canal Commission.^[1] But today the canal project owes no man more for its promising future than it owes General Grant.

Well-equipped expeditions were fitted out for surveying the different routes selected for examination by such men as Shufeldt, Lull, Self ridge, Crossman, Collins, Hatfield, all officers of the navy, and when the mass of evidence seemed to be pointing toward Panama as the most favorable site for a canal, a French naval officer came in suddenly and unexpectedly took the stake.

I say this with some fear of contradiction, yet I believe this contention can be maintained. To be sure, a number of the leading men in our country favored the Nicaragua route, and many naval officers were strong in their conviction that its location was the most favorable for a canal, but I claim this view was largely influenced by political considerations and the imperfect knowledge then extant regarding the work necessary to construct a canal on so large a scale.

One of the first official acts of the government of the United States in connection with canal investigation was a resolution passed by the United States Senate March 9, 1866, reading as follows:

"Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy furnish, through a report of the Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, the summit levels and distances by survey of the various proposed lines for interoceanic canals and railroads between the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, as, also, their relative merits as practicable lines for the construction of a ship canal, and especially as relates to Honduras, Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Panama, and Atrato lines; and also whether, in the opinion of the Superintendent, the Isthmus of Darien has been satisfactorily explored; and, if so, furnish in detail charts, plans, lines of levels, and all information connected therewith, and upon what authority they are based."

The result of the resolution was a comprehensive report of the whole canal question as far as then known by the late Rear Admiral Charles H. Davis, U.S. Navy, Superintendent Naval Observatory, of which 8,000 copies were printed by order of Congress.

Another able and voluminous report on the "Problem of Interoceanic Communication by way of the American Isthmus" was prepared in pursuance of an order of the Navy Department by Lieut. John T. Sullivan, U. S. Navy, in 1883, which was published in accordance with authority of Congress, and which became a standard reference book on the subject.

Capt. B. P. Lull, U. S. N., surveyed this route in 1875, and he estimated, as the most practical plan, for a lock-canal of a length of 41.7 miles from sea to sea; but the real origin of the Panama Canal as an accepted project may be found in the brief surveys of Lieutenants Wyse and Reclus of the French navy. On the