Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/261

Rh the latter part of 1887 when it became evident that the sea level plan of canal was not feasible with the resources at command. Changes were soon made in the plans, and it was concluded to expedite the completion of the canal by the introduction of locks, deferring the change to a sea-level canal until some period when conditions would be sufficiently favorable to enable the company to attain that end. Work was prosecuted under this modified plan until 1889, when the company became bankrupt and was dissolved by judgment of the French Court, called the Tribunal Civil de la Seine, on February 4, 1889. An officer called the liquidator, corresponding quite closely to a receiver in this country, was appointed by the court to take charge of the company's affairs. At no time was the project of completing the canal abandoned, but the liquidator gradually curtailed operations and finally suspended the work on Mav 15, 1889.

He determined to take into careful consideration the feasibility of the project, and to that end appointed a 'commission d'études,' composed of eleven French and foreign engineers, headed by Inspector-General Guillemain, director of the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. This commission visited the isthmus and made a careful study of the entire enterprise, and subsequently submitted a plan for the canal involving locks. The cost of completing the entire work was estimated to be $112,500,000, but the sum of $62,100,000 more was added to cover administration and financing, making a total of $174,600,000. This commission also gave an approximate estimate of the value of the work done and of the plant at $87,300,000, to which some have attached much more importance than did the commission itself. The latter appears simply to have made the 'estimate' one half of the total cost of completing the work added to that of financing and administration, as a loose appproximationapproximation [sic], calling it an 'intuitive estimate'; in other words, it was simply a guess, based upon such information as had been gained in connection with the work done on the isthmus.

By this time, the period specified for completion under the original Wyse Concession had nearly expired. The liquidator then sought from the Colombian Government an extension of ten years, which was granted under the Colombian law dated December 26, 1890. This extension was based upon the provision that a new company should be formed and work on the canal resumed not later than February 28, 1893. The latter condition was not fulfilled, and a second extension was obtained on April 4, 1893, which provided that the ten-year extension of time granted in 1890 might begin to run at any time prior to October 31, 1894, but not later than that date. When it became apparent that the provisions of this last extension would not be carried out an agreement between the Colombian Government and the new Panama Company was entered into on April 26, 1900, which extended