────────────┬───────┬───────────┬─────────┬─────────┬────────────── │ │ │Estimated│ │ Length of Proposed │Length.│ Obstacles.│Duration │ Expense.│ Time occupied Canal. │ │ │of Work. │ │ in going │ │ │ │ │through Canal. ────────────┼───────┼───────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────────── │ kms. │ │ years. │ millions│ days. │ │ │ │ of fr. │ Tehuantepec │ 240 │ 120 locks │ .. │ .. │ 12 Nicaragua │ 292 │ 17 ” │ 8 │ 900 │ 4½ Panama │ 73 │ none │ 12 │ 1·200 │ 1½ San Blas │ 53 │ tunnel │ 12 │ 1·400 │ 1 │ │ 14 kilom.│ │ │ Atrato │ 290 │ tunnel │ 10 │ 1·130 │ 3 │ │ 4 kilom.│ │ │ ────────────┴───────┴───────────┴─────────┴─────────┴────────────── The cost of the maintenance and working of each of the several schemes was estimated at the same sum—130 million of francs, or 5 per cent. of the anticipated receipts. No doubt appears to have been entertained that the enterprise would prove highly remunerative. M. Voisin Bey, Inspector-General of Ways and Bridges, calculated that the company would be able to obtain an average of 15 francs on at least four million tons of shipping expected to make use of the canal; and the Statistical Commission committed themselves to the view that the two canals of Suez and Panama would present the following comparison:— ───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────────── │ Cost. │ Tonnage. │Annual Receipts. ├──────────┼──────────┼──────────────── │ millions │ millions │ millions │of francs.│ of tons. │ of francs. Suez │ 500 │ 3 │ 30 Panama │ 1,070 │ 6 │ 9 ───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────────── On the faith of these and similar statements, many of them, as we now know, largely illusory, the _Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama_ was founded in 1879 with a capital of 600 millions of francs, or about one half the sum estimated as necessary, but with authority to increase or reduce the capital as might be deemed desirable.