July 2.
Apart from its direct bearing upon the political and commercial future of the countries bordering upon the Pacific Ocean, the Panama Canal exercises a powerful hold upon the imagination both by reason of the vicissitudes of the undertaking and on account of its magnitude, As it was the object of Columbus' expedition to find a western route to Cathay, the incidental discovery that America blocked the way could not serve as the limit of explorers' ambitions in those days; and as soon as the continuity of the American coast line was established, we find the iden of a canal across the continent first propounded. But M.|more than two hundred years elapsed after 1550 before. actual steps were taken to survey any route for such a canal. No practical
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