The limits of this letter forbid a full discussion of navigation distances, and besides this, distances are not fully conclusive. Considerations of traffic, ocean currents, available coaling stations, and return cargoes must be taken into account. But I shall briefly allude to prominent points in connection with navigable distances which are proven by U. S. Hydrographic Tables. Considering New York as the starting point, the _divisional line_ between Suez and Nicaragua Canal influence in Asiatic commerce is _Singapore_, which port is only 29 miles nearer New York via Suez than Nicaragua. Consequently _all Asiatic Ports north of Singapore_ are within the attraction of the American Canal for United States commerce. The immense trade of these ports is an important factor. In Australia, all ports East of and including Melbourne are much nearer New York than via Suez. New Zealand, the coasts of North and South America on both oceans and all Pacific Ocean Island groups the same. No claim to important diversion from the Suez Canal can be made, as the distance from the United States to Port Said protects it. Nor is a claim to diversion from Suez Canal needed. The Nicaragua Canal had within its zone of attraction, as shown by careful estimates in 1890, 8,159,150 tons annually. The revenue attainable therefrom will depend upon rate of toll, but at one dollar per ton, with 10 per cent. for operating expenses (or 1-1/2 per cent. more than at Suez) it will leave a safe sinking fund even on $150,000,000.00 cost, or, by an extension of time, on a greater amount. But the earnings will rapidly increase. You will note that the Suez Canal merely diverted gradually an _ancient_ commerce, the increase of which has been steady but comparatively slow. The Nicaragua Canal can depend upon an already large commerce, yet in its _incipiency_. The resources of the American continent are _undeveloped_ and its population _limited_. No man can place a limit upon the future commerce of this great division of the habitable world. Another feature in favor of the Nicaragua Canal is _the region through which it will be built_. While its length is 169 miles, it has 121 miles of free slack water and lake navigation, through a territory of unsurpassed fertility, blessed with a healthy climate. Thus, _it is not only an inter-oceanic canal but a line of inland navigation_ which will so develop the territory on each side that in a few yew years its commerce will pay the cost of maintenance. The benefit of a fresh water canal to ocean carriers of steel or iron will be obvious to experts: they will leave it with clean bottoms and boilers filled with fresh water. Its location is 11° North of the Equator and in the North East trade regions, an advantage that will enable sailing ships to avail of it. Cape Horn is twelve hundred miles South of the Cape of Good Hope and the American Canal consequently saves greater distances than the Suez or any other canal that can hereafter be constructed.