Mr. CONNESS. Desiring to be able to present to the Senate, in the absence of the full report made by Admiral Davis on this subject, such a synopsis of the facts as would present the subject intelligently to the body, and not having time to examine the report myself, I called upon Admiral Davis to furnish such a sync sis. He has furnished a very brief one, and will ask the Clerk to read it and then be done with the subject; and I beg the Senate to give its attention. he Secretary reud as follows: " The objectufthe resolutionto which thereport is a reply, was to collect together and put in order all the existinginformation coneerninuthis question of intoroccunic.communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific. This has never been done botorcin a satisfactorymanner. It is true that several able and comprehensive papers on the subject have up penrcilamong the geographicalMemoirs of England and France, but no one of them has been accom panied with afull setof chartsand statisticaldata and no one of them furnishes in itself the meanso arriving nt adefiniteand distinct idea.of what.has been done in eachcase, of'what remains to bedone in eachcase, and in what direction we are to turn our fu“tuirteisetuln'onretscaensdsainrvyetosetinglaatrigoenus.pon the i m ortance of this subjtwt. No intelligent perconwho as paid even slight attention to it will fail to perceive that the construction of a practicableship canalthrough one of the American isthmuseswould be attended with the most wonderfulresultsin respect to the com niegccand intercourseof the different nationsof the g o " c. We are sosituated, occupyinc ncentral position betweenEurope and Asia on the lineof oceanicnavigation. that we shall be more benefited by these results thun anyother people. The magnitudeof the enterprise, its influence upon our national life and progress, and the exceedingimportance. as I conceive, of keepingthis undertaking in the hands and under the control of someoneof the niembers of the American family of nationsI all these considerations of themselvesrender it extremelydesirablethat the U.S.should prosecute to completion certain surveys and explorations which nre pointedout in this report. But it is further to hesaid that this is a peculiarly favorable juncture for making such surveys; and in order to explain myself on this head I will offer a brief synopsisof thereport. “As many usLWODI‘YTS different routeshave been proposedat various times by different persons for interoccanic communication either by canal or by railroad. All theseroutes areclassifiedunder a few generaltitles. Thus severul routesacrosstheIsthmus of Tehuanteiecare discussed;so again of Honduras Nicaragua, anania, Daricn, and the province 0 Chico. how. in this report. each one of theseisth musesis taken up separately and treatedat sufficiuntI lcn th to make its value and merits perfectlyintel ligi lo. In eachcasethereis a mnp whichgives.by inspection, heights, distnneossummit levels, and, in most instances. topographica featuresand plans of construction, with minute details wherever such plans could be obtained. In this respectthe proport isso full that the readerhasthemeansof forming an indo pendentjudgment.but to this end a careful study of the maps is necessary; and that being out of question at present, I shall only attemptto give you t s most. General conclusion. “On eachone of the isthmnses which I have cnumerated there are cireumstunees and featureswhichhave attractedin a greater or less degree the attention of projectors, capitalists, and engineers: and of course the real feasibility of the prrijcct copld only be revealed by an actual survey. inll cite a single‘0): ampleby way ofillustrution. In the state of Nica raguu. nature seemsto have cirtended a helpinfihand by offeringthe aid of the fl '(:Sfan Juan an the Central lakes, and thusdiminishing bya natural water communicationthe territory to be pierced to one 10th of the whole length of the canal. Herc. as in severalother cases, attractive circumstances have led to accuratesurveying operations onwhichwecan build safeconclusions. Illiese surveys supply a processof elimination by removing certain routes alto getherfromour further consideration, at leastfor the present, and thus narrowing down our field of operations. Thus. our reliable surveys of the Isthmus of TehniiiRepec. Honduras. l ioaragua. Panama and the upper waters of the Ati ntoc igeludo all these places for the presentfrom our inquiry. We are satisfied that no ship canal will be undertaken at presentat either of the soplaces.and.indeed.Imny say, w'illover beundertakenat either of these places until we are convincedthat there is not a better site for a elsewhere. Now. a concurrenceof favorable canal indications and of highly advantageousnatural conditions pointsout one region as the proper field for our 1'!“ mediatelabors: and that is the Isthmus of Dorian eastof a line joining Panama and Porto Hello and more particularly the 3 routes between Chcpo and SanBlns, between SanMiguel and Port Escoccs by the Savana and betweenSan Miguel and Urnba by the way of the Tuyn. The report shows what has been done and what hasbeenattemptedon each one of these routes; it also shows what advantages these routes possessand what promisethey give of affordinga successfulsolution to our great problem. It is for carrying out and completingthe surveysin this direction. that I ask for an appropriation of 840.001n)o, t doubtingthat thosewho carme as well as all educated gentlemen throughout the country. will regard this problemasMr. Jefferson did. as ‘a vast desideratum for reasons political and philo sophical.’”