pool. The Corinth Canal across
the isthmus that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece
affords a much shorter route between Italian ports and Odessa. The North
Holland Ship Canal makes Amsterdam practically a seaport.

Probably no other highway of commerce since the discovery of the Cape
route around Africa has caused such a great change and readjustment of
trade between Europe and Asia as the Suez Canal. Sailing-vessels still
take the Cape route, because the heavy towage tolls through the canal
more than offset the gain in time. Steamships have their own power and
generally take the canal route, thereby saving about ten days in time
and fuel, and about four thousand eight hundred miles in distance. In
spite of the heavy tolls the saving is considerable. About three
thousand five hundred vessels pass through the canal yearly.

The Suez Canal, constructed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, for some time was
under the control of French capitalists. Subsequently, by the purchase
of stock partly in open market and partly from the Khedive of Egypt, the
control of the canal passed into the hands of the English. The
restrictions placed upon the passage of war-ships is such that the canal
would be of little use to nations at war.

[Illustration: THE ROUTE OF THE PANAMA CANAL]

The necessity of an interoceanic canal across the American continent has
become more imperative year by year for fifty years. The discovery of
gold in California caused an emigration from the Atlantic to the Pacific
coast which resulted in a permanent settlement of the latter region. A
railway across the Isthmus of Panama and another across the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec have afforded very poor means of communication between
oceans.

In 1881 work on a tide-level canal across the Isthmus of Panama was
begun, but the plan was afterward changed to a high-level canal. The
change was thought necessary partly on account of the great cost of the
former, and partly because of the difficulties of constructing so deep a
cut--about three hundred and forty feet--at the summit of the Culebra
ridge. The construction company, after spending the entire
capital--about one hundred and twenty million dollars--in accomplishing
one-tenth of the work, became bankrupt. The United States subsequently
purchased the franchise.

A canal by way of Lake Nicaragua has also been projected, and two
treaties with Great Britain, whereby the United States agreed to build
no fortificatio