.

"From what has been already said, it will be seen that the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company, independently of the associate line on
this side of the Isthmus, and without taking into view the cost of
the railroad, has expended in the construction of mail steamers
alone $2,518,337; and if to this be added $2,606,440.45, the
expense incurred for a similar purpose by the Company on the
Atlantic side of the Isthmus, the entire cost of steamships, to
the two companies engaged in the transportation of the California
and Oregon mails, has been $5,124,777.

"It is no more than sheer justice that your Committee should state
that the California lines, east as well as west of the Isthmus of
Panama, have proved themselves worthy in all respects of the
confidence of the country. In no single instance has an accident
occurred involving loss of life or serious injury in any way to
the travelling public. Such is the strength of the vessels
employed, that on two several occasion when, owing to dense fogs
and under-currents, cooperating with the defectiveness of the
charts of the Pacific coast, one of the ships of the Aspinwall
line struck, at one time, upon a soft bottom, and, at another,
upon a hard sandy bar, she was steamed off, after thumping,
without the slightest injury whatever. Facts such as these are the
more important, inasmuch as several steamers have lately been lost
on the same coast with a great sacrifice of human life, evidently
owing to a want of the strength necessary to resist, effectually,
the force of the winds and waves. In the opinion of your
Committee, the security afforded to travellers by the strong
fastenings and heavy timbers of the ocean mail steamers, built as
they are, under the supervision of naval officers, who are
selected on account of their thorough acquaintance with and
experience in such matters, and made capable of sustaining heavy
armaments, is a matter of the greatest moment. Experience has
shown that, in the race after gain, our countrymen are, perhaps,
more regardless of risk to human life than the people of any other
country in the world. Scarcely a day passes without fresh
evidences of the truth of this proposition. The river, as well as
the sea-going steamers, are generally built with reference to
speed and lightness, coupled with smallness of d