Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1896.djvu/132

 and the others, of which thirty were colored, representing geological scenery with particular reference to the Southern States, and two large relief models of the United States, made with proper curvature as segments of a globe, one topographic only, the other showing the ice sheet of the glacial period, setting forth the essential difference between the northern and southern portions of the country, together with cases of minerals, fossils, etc. In the mineral exhibit a comprehensive showing was made of the mineral products of the South, their quantity, quality, and the conditions governing their production and those now limiting the usefulness of the economic minerals, etc.

In addition, the department of mining of the entire exposition, as shown in the building devoted to mining and forestry, was organized and controlled by representatives of the Survey, with Dr. D. T. Day in charge. In this exhibit the economic geology of the Southern States was comprehensively shown.

THE MARITIME CANAL COMPANY OF NICARAGUA. By an act approved February 20, 1889 (25 Stat. L., 673), the Congress chartered the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua “to facilitate commercial intercourse by water between the Atlantic and Pacific States, as well as with foreign nations.” The act provided, however—

That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to commit the United States to any pecuniary liability whatever for or on account of said company, nor shall the United States be held in anywise liable or responsible in any form or by any implication for any debt or liability in any form which said company may incur, nor be held as guaranteeing any engagement or contract of said company, or as having assumed by virtue of this act any responsibility for the acts or proceedings of said company in any foreign country, or contracts or engagements entered into in the United States.

The act requires the company to make a report on the first Monday in December in each year to the Secretary of the Interior, to be verified on oath by its president and secretary. A preliminary statement has been submitted by the canal company showing that no work has been done on the canal since August, 1893. The corporation has held its regular annual meetings at its office in the city of New York, and at its last annual election on May 7, 1896, selected Messrs. Joseph Bryan, James Roosevelt, Hiram Hitchcock, and Thomas B. Atkins as directors to serve for three years and to fill the places made vacant by the class whose term of oflice expired on that day.

It appears from the statement that the Maritime Canal Company entered into a contract with the Nicaragua Canal Construction Company for the construction of the canal, but that the latter company became financially embarrassed in August, 1893, and subsequently made an assignment of its construction contract and all its assets to the Nicaragua Company, a corporation chartered by the State of Vermont. The latter company “has not yet found itself in a position to resume the work of construction under its contract.”