GEOLOGY.
A mere enumeration of the geological specimens, which is all that present knowledge upon this subject will permit, is not thought desirable in this paper. Speculations and theories, if not premature, would be out of place.
The physical geography of Central America is the proper subject for a treatise. We have already seen how the table-lands of Guatemala, from four to five thousand feet above the level of the sea, sink to an insignificant height at Panama and Nicaragua. “There is no spot on the globe,” says Humboldt, “so full of volcanoes as this part of America, between 11° and 13° of latitude.”
Two or three volcanoes, Fuego and Agua, in the State of Guatemala, are 14,000 and 12,000 feet high. Some of the volcanoes of Nicaragua reach a height of 7,000 feet. A common and remarkable characteristic of all of them is, that they rise in a conical form from the plain.
| GOLD. | SILVER. | BOTH METALS. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1804 to 1848 | $8,800,000 | $4,400,000 | $13,200,000 |
| 1848 to 1868 | 5,000,000 | 3,000,000 | 8,000,000 |
| Total | $13,800,000 | $7,400,000 | $21,200,000 |
The mines of the Provinces of Panama and the Veraguas are not worked so extensively as they deserve to be. A small quantity of gold is annually produced in the Republics of Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and San Salvador. The Costa Rican mint, in 1852, coined between fifty and one hundred thousand dollars annually. The actual gold product is estimated at ten times this amount. The most important mines in new Granada (Colombia) are found in the State of Antioquia. In 1868, the yield was $1,500,000 gold; $193,000 silver. The detritus of all the rivers of this State is auriferous. An English company works the Marmato gold mine and the Santa Anna silver mine, near Honda, on the Magdelina River. They have provided twelve stamping mills, representing one hundred and ten heads, which crush from ten to nineteen thousand tons per year, yielding, on an average, eleven pennyweights eleven grains of gold per ton.
Footnotes:
[1] For more detailed account of the difficulties and of the preliminary work, the reader is referred to the pamphlets of Capt. Methven, Pen. and Oriental Steamship Company; of J. N. Strouse, U. S. N.; Mr. H. Mitchell, Coast Survey; Blackwood, Dec., 1869, and other periodicals.
[2] The reader is referred to the reports of the French engineers; to the pamphlet of J. N. Nourse, U. S. N.; Blackwood, Dec., 1869; London Times, and other periodicals.
[3] See Delta Report of Generals Humphreys and Abbot.
[4] 17,738 miles during S. W. monsoon. For a part of this table I am indebted to Com. B. F. Sands, U. S. N.
[5] Present average of the tonnage of ships of the commercial marine is 380 to 400 tons. The calculation supposes a commercial year of 300 days, and that the same number of ships arrive daily.
[6] The Egyptian correspondent of the Boston Advertiser, March 15, 1870, observes: “The channel at Lake Timseh has not much more than 19 feet of water, as on the day of opening. We met two steamers on their way to Bombay, an English vessel going for cotton, and the French steamer Asie. This was evidently all the business of the day, and from the report of the company, it is a fair average of the amount of work done. The company say they register one thousand five hundred tons a day.”
The following statement exhibits more fully the tonnage and toll-receipts of the Suez Canal:
| In December, 1869 | 9 | steamers and sailing ships | 40,000 | francs |
| In January, 1870 | 16 | “ “ | 170,000 | “ |
| In February, 1870 | 28 | “ “ | 269,000 | “ |
| In March, 1870 | 52 | “ “ | 450,000 | “ |
[7] The Caledonia Canal is 25 miles long, and 122 feet wide at water surface. Dimensions of locks, 178½ by 39 feet. Lockage, 95 feet.
[8] An announcement in the Cincinnati Commercial declares that the exploring party now at Darien have failed to find a practicable route at that point.—{May 11, 1870.}
[9] At this station the difference in the readings of the barometers was so great that the height was computed from the mean of the readings of each instrument separately. In other cases the united mean of both was used. The height given in the table was computed from the readings of the barometer which was used as a standard.
Transcriber's Notes:
The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is in the public domain.
Typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Inconsistent place names have been silently corrected.