differ on the question of total cost, the several estimates ranging from
one hundred and eighteen million to one hundred and thirty-five million
dollars. The United States Congress at its last session authorized the
expenditure of one million by a new commission "to investigate the
merits of all suggested locations and develop a project for an Isthmus
Canal."

And so we left the land of the lizard. What wonders they are! From an
inch to two feet in length, slim, slippery, and of many and changeful
colors, they literally inhabit the land, and are as much at home in a
house as out of it; indeed, the houses are never free of them. They
sailed up the river with us, and crossed the lake in our company, and
sat by the mountain wayside awaiting our arrival; for they are curious
and sociable little beasts. As for the San Juan river, 'tis like the
Ocklawaha of Florida many times multiplied, and with all its original
attractions in a state of perfect preservation.

All the way up the coast we literally hugged the shore; only during the
hours when we were crossing the yawning mouth of the Gulf of California
were we for a single moment out of sight of land. I know not if this was
a saving in time and distance, and therefore a saving in fuel and
provender; or if our ship, the John L. Stevens, was thought to be
overloaded and unsafe, and was kept within easy reach of shore for fear
of accident. We steamed for two weeks between a landscape and a seascape
that afforded constant diversion. At night we sometimes saw flame-tipped
volcanoes; there was ever the undulating outline of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains through Central America, Mexico, and California.

Just once did we pause on the way. One evening our ship turned in its
course and made directly for the land. It seemed that we must be dashed