Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/700

680 an arched aqueduct to the elegant high bridge over the Harlem. The old reservoir was constructed in Central Park, the distributing reservoir in Forty-second street, and many accessory works, more or less expensive, were finished, at an average expense of $1,000,000 per mile.

Many years of connection with the Croton aqueduct have made me familiar with the character of its works, and the thorough survey made of the feeder route enables me to believe that the construction of the ship-canal feeder cannot exceed one fifth of the entire cost of the Croton aqueduct.

The expenses to be incurred for the canal proper need no defence; they depend upon the assumed dimensions of the trench and locks, while the class and number of obstacles to be overcome are of the most ordinary nature.

Although the construction of this ship-canal is truly a large project, when compared with many ancient works its magnitude disappears.

One thousand one hundred and seventy-eight years before Christ, the pyramid of Chemnif was commenced. In its construction 360,000 slaves were employed during twenty years, and ten years were spent in the building of the causeway, over which 100,000 men, in gangs of 10,000, brought the materials to the pyramid.

The canal built by Nitocris, queen of Babylon, and which protected her kingdom against the Medes, was made by turning the Euphrates into an artificial channel, probably provided with gates and sluices, and with so many windings that it was a three days' voyage to pass the town of Ardericca. To prevent the city from inundations, Nebuchadnezzar, five hundred and sixty-two years before Christ, built an immense lake to receive the floodwater, while facing the banks of the Euphrates with brick and bitumen walls the entire length of its course through the city.

Modern Rome is abundantly supplied from three of the twenty aqueducts that once brought water across the Campagna, in lines from 30 to 60 miles in length. One of these aqueducts passed over 7,000 arches.

The Thermæ of Agustus and Diocletian were magnificent conceptions of luxury. In the latter, 40,000 Christians were employed, and it furnished baths for 32,000 people, in sumptuous buildings covering an area nearly a mile in circumference; while the ruins of the baths of Caracalla still attest to their ancient vastness, being the largest ruins inside the city, next to the Coliseum.

One third of the walls of the Coliseum still remain, inclosing the area where 100,000 spectators once witnessed a naval battle fought upon an artificial sea.

I believe that, taking into account the transcendental importance of the Tehuantepec ship-canal, and the power of our present civilization, other reasons than 'natural obstacles' and the 'expense of the undertaking' must be given for postponing any longer the opening of whatever isthmian route may prove most beneficial to the national interest and the commerce of the world.

Explorations of the Coatzacoalcos River. — On the 28th of November, the Kansas steam-launch and four canoes shoved off the Coatzacoalcos bank, opposite the American consulate, having on board our instruments and all the officers and men, bound for the mountains.