and those for extra import duties, export duties, port dues, and arrears, in the aggregate:

MAIL SERVICE IN AUGUST, 1904.

A report of the Postmaster-General of the Republic of Mexico states that the movement in the mail service of the Republic during the month of August, 1904, as compared with the same month of 1903, was as follows:

These figures indicate an increase for the month of August, 1904, of 11.49 per cent.

MARKET FOR LEATHER AND ARTICLES IN MOROCCO LEATHER.

Although Mexico disposes of a large quantity of skins and tanning material and labor is at present cheap, the leather industry has not developed here on a large scale. This is attributed to the lack of

capital and also to the absence of competent persons to direct the industry.

Accordingly, large quantities of sole leather, calf and goat skins are yearly imported from the United States and Germany in spite of the heavy duties.

Mexico offers a good market for fine Morocco goods, and several German manufacturers of Offenbach have done a very good business here through representatives who regularly visit the dealers.

The usual conditions for payment are three months after acceptance.

THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY.

The following article by Mr. E. L. CORTHELL appeared originally in the "Railroad Gazette," a Spanish translation of the same, as published in "El Economista Mexicano" for August 20, 1904, having been published in the MONTHLY BULLETIN for September:

"After three hundred and eighty-four years-Cortez to Diaz-with projects without number and failures many, and with persistent efforts on the part of Mexico, after the expenditure of large sums of money, the end is in sight, for the railroad across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, from ocean to ocean, will be ballasted completely by the end of this year. There will be a depth of 22 feet through the Coatzacoalcos bar in the gulf at the end of 1905, with 33 feet to follow. The Salina Cruz harbor on the Pacific will be protected by its two breakwaters in the sea and the inner port be ready for business, and at that time. lines of steamships will be in operation from both ports to the coastwise ports of Mexico and the United States and to other countries. The works from sea to sea are being prosecuted with all the energy possible by one of the most energetic and experienced contracting firms of the present day-Messrs. Pearson & Sons, of London, who are also contractors for the four East River tunnels of the Pennsylvania Road between New York City and Long Island.

"There are still-dating from November, 1903-over ten millions gold to expend on the two harbors and port facilities. When the work is finally complete there will be open to the world's commerce a truly oceanic route. The fact that the Mexican Government is a partner with Pearson & Sons in the construction and operation for forty years of this route and that the Government, by a "merger" with certain railroad companies, now controls the operation of important systems extending from Laredo to Salina Cruz makes it important to briefly review the history of the project-dating back nearly four hundred years--and to present advantages claimed for this route by President Diaz and his advisers. Their view, resolutely held, is that the Tehuantepec route will be entirely completed and in full operation with its own lines of steamships eight years before the Panama Canal can possibly be opened to traffic; that the Tehuantepec route has

immense geographic and navigation advantages over Panama and that it can easily draw to itself in the eight years all the traffic naturally tributary to it, and that, even after the opening of the Panama Canal, its excellent facilities for the prompt and economical handling of freight from ship to car and from car to ship will enable it to hold all it will have acquired; also that the ever-increasing volume of the world's commerce and of interoceanic traffic will enable the Tehuantepec route to acquire its share of this increase, sufficient to make the great investments of the Government yield a fair return. It may be stated also that the Government of Mexico and its people have always believed it was their duty to the world to develop what they believe to be the natural and most advantageous route for the commerce of the world to pass between the oceans.

"In 1520, as soon as Cortez, through the hospitality of Montezuma, was installed in the Aztec national palace, he inquired of the King if he had any charts of the coast. The King produced them and the eagle eye of Cortez at once lighted upon the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River. Immediately a reconnoitering party was sent to explore it. The report was so favorable upon this landlocked harbor and the great river stretching many miles into the interior, that Cortez urged upon the Emperor, Charles V of Spain, to make this the route to Cathay. Cortez was so sure that it would be an interoceanic route some day that he asked for and received the grant of an immense tract of land in the interior of the isthmus and was made Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca. The route of the railroad of the present day passes through the lands of his descendants. They are called the Marquesans or estates of the Marquis. They embrace about 200,000 acres.

"There is evidence that Cortez built a military road from the city of Tehuantepec on the Pacific, to the headwaters of the Coatzacoalcos on the Atlantic, and that it was in use for a hundred years. A century later the Spanish Viceroy was petitioned to declare Coatzacoalcos a port of entry and a great depot of commerce instead of the port and city of Veracruz.

"The first real survey was made in 1774 by a civil engineer named Augustin Cramer, by order of the Viceroy. He reported that ‘It would not be a work of great difficulty, nor excessively costly, to effect a communication between the two seas across this isthmus.' In 1814 another project for a canal was brought forward, and the Spanish Cortes authorized the opening of a canal across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in preference to Nicaragua and Panama.' In 1824 a survey was made by Colonel Orbegozo, appointed by the General Government. This was three years after Mexico became an independent republic. In 1842 President Santa Ana granted a citizen of Mexico, José de Garay, the right of way across the Isthmus for a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific. This was about the time of the

advent of railroads, and the grantee had the privilege of building a canal or to use 'railroads and steam carriages.' The survey for the route was made soon afterwards by Gaetano Moro.

"This concession was extended several times, and in 1848 Garay transferred his concession to an English company, and they in 1849 assigned it to Mr. Hargous, of New York. The Tehuantepec Railroad Company, of New Orleans, organized under the Garay concession, assigned to Hargous and began an exhaustive survey for a railroad in 1850, under the charge of Gen. J. G. Barnard, topographical engineer, assisted by Mr. J. J. Williams, C. E. Mr. Williams arranged and prepared the results of the survey in a published work of about 300 pages and a book of maps. This work gave a 'résumé of the geology, climate, local geography, productive industry, fauna, and flora of that region.' This very interesting work has formed the basis of all later studies. It was published in 1852. However, before work could be undertaken the Mexican Congress in 1851 declared the concession granted in 1842 and amended in 1846 null and void, on the ground that the Acting President had exceeded his powers.

"During all the intervening five years there had been not only distrust of the people and Government of the United States, but for two years a war, leaving a fear of the overshadowing influence of the greater Republic. They did not wish to have at Tehuantepec a repetition of what had just happened in Texas. This distrust was strengthened by some filibustering invasions of the border States of Mexico.

The distrust and the failure to conclude a treaty of neutrality over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which the United States Government would have been glad to celebrate, and the evident determination of the Mexican Government not to recognize the charter to Garay, which had come into the hands of United States citizens, led parties in the latter country interested in Isthmus transit to apply to the Government of Granada for a concession. This was granted with a treaty between the two Governments to build a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama, which was begun in 1850 and finished in 1855.

"Had it not been for these conditions, no doubt the railroad would have been built at Tehuantepec at that time and none would have been built at Panama, and no canal would have been built there, and Tehuantepec would now be the world's highway of commerce between the oceans, either by a railroad, as now, or by a canal which Captain Shufeldt declared entirely practicable after extended surveys, or by a ship railroad, as proposed by Captain Eads.

"After annulling the Garay grant, the Mexican Congress, in 1852, arranged for propositions on an international competition to open a route across the Isthmus. A company composed of Mexican and American citizens obtained the contract. Mr. A. G. Sloo was the moving spirit in this project, but nothing came of it, and it was annulled

in 1857. In the same year a grant was made to the Louisiana-Tehuantepec Company. This was twice extended, until, in 1861, Napoleon III instructed his Minister in Mexico to secure the grant which this company had just forfeited, and this stood on the records until October 12, 1866, when Emperor Maximilian extended the time, but three days later (October 15) President Juarez, not recognizing the authority of Maximilian, granted the right of way for a railroad and telegraph line to the Tehuantepec Trust Company, and annulled the charter of 1857. "The headquarters of this last-mentioned company was in New York City, but this charter also was later forfeited. In 1867 the President of Mexico gave a grant to Emilio de la Sere, an American citizen. A company was organized in Vermont by act of the General Assembly of that State. Some amendments by the Mexican Government followed, and in 1870 an additional right was granted this company to build a canal also. One of the earnest and indefatigable workers to project the scheme was Simon Stevens, well known in New York as a persistent promoter of this project. He was president of the company. He published a book of 90 pages with maps and illustrations on the subject of Tehuantepec.

"About this time the United States Government sent a party to the Isthmus under the command of Captain Shufeldt, 'to ascertain the practicability of a ship canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.' The results were given in a quarto-sized book with numerous illustrations and maps-190 pages of text and 20 maps and profiles. The principal civil engineering assistant to Captain Shufeldt was the late Prof. E. A. Fuertes, dean of engineering of Cornell University. The physical and hydraulic conditions were found to be favorable for the construction and operation of a canal 22 feet deepabout the depth contemplated by the plans of the Government at Nicaragua at that date-60 feet wide at the bottom, and 162 feet at the top. The total length was to have been 144 miles, and there were to have been 140 locks, all of very low lift, compared with modern lifts. The harbor conditions were reported to be very favorable on both sides of the Isthmus. As bearing on the entire subject of transit across the American Isthmus, the report of Admiral Shufeldt gives important testimony, and may be quoted here with advantage to the appreciation of the subject:

I have, therefore, regarded canal communication through this hemisphere as American and local in its main object, incidental only as to the rest of the world. Viewed from this standpoint, a single glance at the map demonstrates not only the necessity of a canal, but its location. Each isthmus rises into importance as it lies nearer the center of American political and commercial influence, and the intrinsic value of this eminently national work ought to be based upon the inverse ratio of the distance from that center. A canal through the