Avowedly, no ocean is so well adapted for steam navigation as the Pacific.  Except near Cape Horn, and in the higher latitudes to the north-west, on its glassy surface storms are seldom encountered.  With their heavy ships, the Spaniards often made voyages from Manilla to Acapulco in sixty-five days, without having once had occasion to take in their light sails.  The ulterior consequences, therefore, of a more general introduction of steam power into that new region, connected with a highway across the isthmus of Panama, no one can calculate.  The experiment along the shores of Chili and Peru has already commenced; and the cheap rate at which fossil fuel can be had has proved a great facility.  Under circumstances so peculiarly propitious, to what an extent, then, may not steam navigation be carried on the smooth expanse of the Southern ocean?  If there are two sections of the globe more pre-eminently suited for commercial intercourse than others, they are the western shores of America and Southern Asia.  To these two markets, consequently, will the attention of manufacturing nations be turned; and, should the project here proposed be carried into effect, depots of merchandize will be formed on and near the isthmus, when the riches of Europe and America will move more easily towards Asia; while, in return, the productions of Asia will be wafted towards America and Europe.  If we entertain the expectation, that at no distant period of time our West India possessions will become advanced posts, and aid in the development of the resources abounding in that extended and varied region at the entrance of which they are stationed—­if the several islands there which hoist the British flag are destined to be resting-places for that trade between Great Britain and the Southern sea, now opening to European industry—­these two great interests cannot be so effectually advanced as by the means above suggested.

[29] Mr Scarlett says, that the depth of water at Chagre is sufficient for steamers and large schooners, which can be navigated without obstruction as far up as the mouth of the Trinidad.  By descending that river, he himself crossed the isthmus in seventeen hours—­viz. from Panama to Cruces, eight; and thence to Chagre, nine.  Mr Wheelright, the American gentleman above quoted, says that the transit of the isthmus during the dry season, (from November to June—­and wet from June to November,) is neither inconvenient nor unpleasant.  The canoes are covered, provisions and fruits cheap along the banks of the Chagre, and there is always personal security.  The temperature, although warm, is healthy.  At the same time it must be confessed, that in the rainy season a traveller is subject to great exposure and consequent illness; but if the railroad was roofed this objection might be removed.  It is on all hands agreed, that the climate of the isthmus would be greatly improved by drainage, and clearing the country of the immense quantities of vegetable matter left