r
proving fatal to the enterprise.

Earthquakes have occurred on the Isthmus, and there is record of one
shock of some consequence in 1882. The matter has been inquired into in
a general way by the various Isthmian commissions, and assumed some
prominence during the discussions and debates regarding a choice of
routes. It was plain to even the least informed that the volcanic belt
of Nicaragua constituted a real menace to a canal in that region; and
one of the strongest arguments advanced in the minority report of the
Senate committee of 1902, submitted by Senator Kittredge, now a leading
advocate of the sea-level project, in opposition to the Nicaragua Canal,
was the assertion of the practical freedom of the Panama Isthmus from
the danger of earth movements.

The minority of the Senate committee of 1902 in their report, summing up
the final reasons in favor of the Panama route (section 12), said:

At Panama earthquakes are few and unimportant, while the Nicaraguan
route passes over a well-known coastal weakness. Only five
disturbances of any sort were recorded at Panama, all very slight,
while similar official records at San Jose de Costa Rica, near the
route of the Nicaragua Canal, show for the same period fifty
shocks, a number of which were severe. (P. 11, S. Rep. 783, part 2,
57th Cong., 1st session, May 31, 1902.)

In another part of their report the committee said:

With the dreadful lessons of Martinique and St. Vincent fresh in
our minds, we should be utterly inexcusable if we deliberately
selected a route for an Isthmian canal in a region so volcanic and
dangerous, when a route is open to us which is exposed to none of
these dangers and is in every other respect more advantageous.

And they quote Professor Heilprin, an authority on the subject, in part,
as follows:

It has, however, been known for a full quarter of a century that
the main Andes do not traverse the Isthmus of Panama, and that
there are no active or recently decayed volcanoes in any part of
the Isthmus. So far, however, as danger from direct volcanic
contacts is concerned, the Panama route is exempt. (Pp. 22-23.)

And further:

This district represents the most stable portion of Central
America. No volcanic eruptions have occurred there since the end of
the Miocene epoch, and there are no active volcanoes between
Chiriqui and Tolim