Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/312

306 The item in this table called Panama railroad diversion affords provision for the reconstruction of the railroad necessitated by the formation of Lake Bohio. That lake would submerge the present location of the railroad for fourteen or fifteen miles.

It will be observed that in the estimates of cost of the canal on both the Nicaragua and the Panama routes 20 per cent, is allowed for 'engineering, police, sanitation and general contingencies.' For the purposes of comparison the same percentage to cover these items was used

on both routes. As a matter of fact the large amount of work which has already been performed on the Panama route removes many uncertainties as to the character of material and other features of difficulty which would be disclosed only after the beginning of the work in Nicaragua. It has therefore been contended with considerable basis of reason that a less percentage to cover these uncertainties should be employed in connection with the Panama estimates than in connection with those for the Nicaragua route. Indeed it might be maintained