Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 08, May 21, 1870

Excerpt

THE GREAT CANAL ENTERPRISE.

[FROM OUR SPECIAL BOSTON CORRESPONDENT.]

BOSTON, May 8th, 1870.

We Bostonians are greatly surprised that your valuable journal has as yet taken no notice of the great undertaking of the century—the Cape Cod Canal. However, you New-Yorkers are quite out of the world, and unless you read the Boston Transcript regularly, can not be expected to know much about the enterprises with which the earnest men of the nation are occupied. The great Cape Cod Canal is, however, not meant simply for the benefit of the Bostonian nation, but for the commerce of the civilized world. It is destined to work a more important revolution in the trade of Plymouth, Barnstable, and Nantucket, than the Suez or Darien Canals.

Of course you are familiar with the peculiar conformation of Cape Cod. It juts out into the Atlantic like an immense elbow, and, indeed, is understood to be modelled after the brawny arm of the gallant CHARLES SUMNER. Vessels passing between ports on the western and those on the southern coast of Massachusetts, are now obliged to make a wide detour in order to circumnavigate the Cape. It is now proposed to cut a canal across the Cape just where it juts out from the mainland, and thus avoid the tedious circumnavigation. The enormous importance of this work will be at once perceived. The Canal will be nearly four miles in length, and will be made of a uniform width of four feet, with a depth of two. This gigantic undertaking will of course cost an immense amount of time and money, but under the able supervision of ELKANAH HOPKINS, the gifted engineer who constructed the board-walk in front of Deacon BREWSTER'S house, at Standish Four Corners, there can be no doubt of its success. Advantage will be taken of the duck-pond of Captain JEHOIAKIM BROWN, which is situated in the course of the proposed canal. By leading the Canal directly through this pond, at least a quarter of a mile of excavation will be avoided. M. DE LESSEPS is known to have decided upon making a similar use of the Bitter Lakes in the construction of his Suez ditch, after having seen ELKANAH HOPKINS' plans for our great Cape Cod Canal. Vessels will hereafter pass through this Canal instead of taking the long voyage around the Cape; and it is believed that the saving which will be effected in the transportation of cod-fish and garden-sass by the consequent shortening of the voyage, will be something enormous. There are those who believe that the Canal will yield a yearly revenue of from eighty to ninety dollars in tolls alone. It is understood that the European Governments have already proposed to the Mayors of Boston and Barnstable to guarantee the neutrality of the Canal in case of war; but it is not possible that the proposition will be acceded to. Bostonians should have the exclusive control of this magnificent work, and the Selectmen of several of our prominent towns have drawn up petitions against the proposition of neutrality. The opening of the Canal will be the most splendid pageant of modern times....