Neither has the stone age in other countries left structures so remarkable as those of Yucatan, structures which, in the Old World, would be considered as belonging to the most advanced periods. Architecture among the Aztecs, but still more among the Yucatecans, attained so high a degree of artistic development as to excite our wonder.

In their moral institutions, too, and in the philosophic spirit that animated a certain class of the population, these ancient American nations differed from the stone-age populations of Europe. To understand this, we have only to read in Sahagun the moral instructions addressed to children, and the same author's account of their mode of educating the young. In these respects they had nothing in common with the stone age; they had passed far beyond it.

We may add that Europe was lifted out of the savagery of its stone age by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who in their ships visited the seacoast and the shores of the Baltic to barter their products, among them bronze hatchets, for amber, thus initiating the rude populations of Europe in the working of metal. On the other hand, the Toltecs, Chichimecs, Aztecs, etc., isolated as they were from the outer world in the interior of their continent, were forced to pass unaided through all those protracted trials which lead a people from one stage of culture to another. This circumstance undoubtedly rendered their progress more slow (though in my opinion it was very rapid), but it did not tend to arrest the development of their artistic tastes by occupying them with a multitude of other branches. They have this advantage over divers nations of the Old World, that they appear to have risen by their own efforts.

DESIRE CHARNAY.

THE NICARAGUA ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC.

FOR some years-indeed ever since the announcement of the results of the Nicaragua surveys-made under the orders of the Government in 1872-73-it has been believed, by those who have given the work attention, that a close examination of the Lajas route might establish the possibility of diverting into Lake Nicaragua the head waters of the Rio Grande, which now flow into the Pacific; this diversion of its waters proving practicable, a much better location than the one heretofore preferred, known as the Rio del Medio route, could be adopted.

Those familiar with the maps contained in Commander Lull's report will remember that between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific the two routes form, as it were, the arms of the letter Y, the branches resting on the lake, and the foot at Brito, the proposed Pacific terminus. The Rio del Medio is the northern arm, and, although the depth of cutting, and the mass of excavation also, was much greater, it was preferred on account of its evidently better capabilities for surface drainage under the normal conditions of the water-flow. The diversion of the head waters of the Rio Grande, recently found to be entirely practicable, makes the southern arm, via the Lajas, the preferable route, permitting as it does an excellent surface drainage, and disposition of surplus water through waste-weirs, almost an entire avoidance of curves, and a reduction of estimated cost, on the same basis for labor as heretofore given, of $7,052,721. This reduction, too, notwithstanding allowance in excavation, is made for an enlarged prism of canal, ample to meet the demands of the friends and the criticisms of the enemies of the canal. The surveys, maps, profiles, and calculations are the work of civil-engineer Menocal, and have been presented to the Society of Civil Engineers of New York for discussion.

On the eastern slope, the river San Juan, from Lake Nicaragua

to the mouth of its tributary, the San Carlos, is a broad stream, with a constant and large discharge, but having four falls or rapids. An examination shows that with a small amount of subaqueous excavation and a dam forty-nine feet in height, and somewhat over two thousand feet in length, the river above can be wholly disembarrassed for the free navigation of any class of vessels. It will be broad and deep enough to permit any rate of speed, as the lake itself, of which indeed it will form simply an extension, making an uninterrupted transit, between the canalization on the east coast and that on the west, of one hundred and twenty miles.

Just above the mouth of the San Carlos it is found that the canal can leave the immediate vicinity of the river San Juan, and be located almost in a direct line to the harbor of Greytown, a distance of only thirty-six miles. This will reduce the length of the tentative line of Commander Lull's survey, below the mouth of the San Carlos, no less than six miles; will dispense with the lateral canals around the different dams, 3.5 miles in length; and, as before stated, will substitute a single dam of forty-nine feet for the four dams heretofore proposed. It is proper, however, to remark that an increase of height of the one dam, as now proposed, will necessitate a broader foundation and increased strength of structure, which, duly allowed for, will, as a whole, result in a material economy.

The present proposed location of the canal between the river San Juan, from one mile above the mouth of the San Carlos to Greytown, is instrumental in part only. An inspection was made of the remaining distance, along a route that will involve nowhere deeper cuttings nor a greater average depth per mile than the old location, and will permit excavation through a longer section by dredging-machines. While this fact is fully assured, the examination has not been of such a character as to permit the presentation of map, profile, and calculations. It is to be regretted that, when the survey of the Lajas route was completed, the rainy season had set in, which made an instrumental examination of the east coast, if not impossible, at least difficult and unsatisfactory. When this route is examined instrumentally, its great advantages in reduction of distance of canal excavation and of labor requisite, and consequently of estimate of cost, both of construction and maintenance, will be plainly apparent. The reader will appreciate the wide difference between a reduction of estimate based upon a more perfect knowledge of the topography, and a reduction supposed possible from a less cost for a given amount of labor.

For the past two years official letters have been on file in the Navy Department, setting forth the probable favorable results of resurveys of these routes, but have not been acted on heretofore because no special appropriations existed, and perhaps because it was supposed to be the province of a canal company to develop superior locations as far as they existed. A study of Commander Lull's surveys will show the probability of a better location along the Lajas route, where is found so low and wide a summit considered in its cross-section, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific coast. Although known to engineers, the intelligent public is not generally informed that the summit, or "divide," between the lake and Pacific, has only an elevation above the seas of one hundred and fifty-one feet, or only forty-one feet above full lake, as it would be maintained by the proposed dam, or one hundred and ten feet above the level of the ocean. The almost immeasurable importance of this grand reservoir, more than three thousand miles in superficies, can not be over-estimated, furnishing as it will, in all time, tenfold the water-supply that can ever be used in lockage, however great the traffic, and regulating and controlling the floodwaters as no work of man could.

The examination of the San Juanillo River by civil-engineer Menocal several years ago, for the Government of Nicaragua, induced the belief on his part that no line of hills would be found which would be an impediment to a more direct location of the canal between Greytown and the waters of the upper San Juan. He made at that time an instrumental examination and relocation of a part of the canal line near Lake Silico, and substituted a cut of fortythree feet for one of one hundred and forty-nine feet, the heaviest indeed along the whole line of excavation. The Paris Congress was informed of this partial relocation, and of the entire probability of further improvement and reduction of cost likely to result from a critical examination of this region.

It is proper to state that, at the time of tentative location of this part of the line, the season was far advanced. No one supposed it would prove throughout its length the best, but as an actual instrumental location it established the entire practicability of the route, and was the best which the time and means at hand permitted. Happily, enough is now known of that region to assure ameliorations instead of increased obstacles to the construction of a canal. The present knowledge of the topography establishes the following, taken from the notes of Mr. Menocal:

Decrease on former estimate of cost between the lake and the Pacific...

$7,052,721

1,356,900

1,056,922

1,917,336

$11,383,879

52,577,718

$41,193,839

It is safe to assume that a final location will reduce the estimate to within $40,000,000. If we add one hundred per cent. as a contingent fund, as did the commissioners appointed by the President, the entire cost on completion would be $80,000,000. Abundant capital in a great work is always a safeguard against delays, so vexatious and expensive when they occur, as they did in the construction of the Suez Canal, and as they are liable to occur under similar conditions.

In the Paris Congress the opinion universally expressed was that the estimates for labor given by Mr. Menocal were altogether too high, but there must necessarily be a wide difference in cost of labor in Europe when compared with intertropical America. As a proof of the sufficiency of the estimate of Mr. Menocal, a responsible and well-known contractor of New York City has offered to enter into heavy bonds to execute all of the subaqueous excavation, whether in rock or other material, at the cost given in the estimate. This will be conceded as the part of the work that would more likely than any other exceed the estimate. Supposing the cost of the canal double the estimate of the engineer, eliminated in part from decrease supposed on final location, and obviously above what a revised estimate will then show, we find in the statistics of Mr. Nimmo and elsewhere abundant proof that the canal will be a profitable investment.

His deductions that vessels will reject good weather and decreased distance in passing through the canal, and choose instead a Cape Horn passage, receives at once a negation, because the shipper