The mouth of the canal is at La Boca, some distance from the railway station. Engineering reasons caused the selection of this spot, as it possessed considerable advantages over the railway terminus. It is the intention of the company to dredge out a large basin near La Boca, where ships can lie in safety while waiting their turn to pass through to the Atlantic Ocean. Until this basin is completed, the anchorage for large ships will be in the vicinity of the islands where the Pacific Mail, and other large companies, have their docks and coaling-stations. [Illustration: STATION AT PANAMA.] Our friends found their baggage at the station; they had telegraphed for accommodations in the principal hotel of Panama, and the runner of the house was waiting to meet them. Confiding their baggage to his care, they proceeded at once to the establishment; breakfast had been served in the directors' car during the ride from Aspinwall, and consequently they were ready to start at once to look through the city. We are permitted to make the following extract from Frank's note-book: [Illustration: CATHEDRAL AT PANAMA.] "Panama contains about eleven thousand inhabitants, and is very substantially built of stone. There is nothing particularly attractive about it, but it is quaint and interesting; the houses are built with court-yards, in the Spanish style, and you might easily imagine yourself in a part of Cordova or Cadiz, or even in Madrid. The cathedral is a fine building for this part of the world, though it would not be regarded as of much account in any prominent city of Europe. The bells are old and not very tuneful; they are rung at frequent intervals, beginning at an early hour of the morning, and it is not advisable for a nervous traveller to take lodgings in the immediate vicinity of the venerable building. "The city is in north latitude 8° 57', and received a royal charter from King Charles I. of Spain, in 1521. 'Panama' is an Indian word which means 'a place abounding in fish;' the old city was about six miles northeast of the present one, which dates from 1670. Old Panama was destroyed in 1668, by Morgan, the buccaneer, and for a long time the present city was known as 'New Panama,' to distinguish it from its predecessor. [Illustration: RAMPARTS, WITH OLD CANNON.]