SCIENTIFIC.
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SCIENTIFIC.
Articles of corporation of the United States Central Railway were filed in Denver, Col., in the latter part of October, providing for the construction and operation of a standard-guage railroad, extending from Denver to San Francisco, across the state of Colorado, the territory of Utah and the states of Nevada and California. The total estimated length of the trunk-line with its branches is 1500 miles. The capital stock is fixed at $75,000,000. The company is represented by a large number of wealthy and energetic business men of the western coast. The line as surveyed by the company passes through the richest portion of the mining district of these states and enters a vast timber belt on the western slope of the Sierras. It is proposed to begin operations at once and push the line to completion within five years at the utmost.
The proposed Jordan canal is receiving considerable attention in England and elsewhere, from engineers, capitalists and divines. The latter class object to the scheme most of any. They say that it would bury forever the sites of some of the greatest events in the world's history; it would extinguish a unique fauna now found nowhere else, and would submerge almost 3,000 square miles of the richest soil of that country. Others laugh at the idea of trying to bring the Dead Sea to the level of the Mediterranean by means of small canals. The proposed route is from Haifa to Jordan, thence down the overflowed country to Ain Gherundel and from there by canal to Akabah at the head of the Gulf of Akabah. Such a canal would give access to Moab and Ammon and the fertile lands between the Jordan and the Dead Sea and the
Euphrates, and by means of Lake Huleth get ships within 50 miles of Damascus. The historical sites of Bethsaida, Capernium, Tibernas, Plain of Gennesaret, Jericho and the Jordan River, would be entirely lost. The total cost including 65 miles of canal, the ports at Haifa and Akabah and the compensation to the people of Jordan valley, is estimated by Gen. C. G. Gordon at $67, - 500,000.
This canal, from its proposed width and depth, would give advantages over the Suez Canal mainly in time, fuel, labor and wear and tear, and with the estimated cost, rates could be reduced one-fifth and a large profit still realized. As the project stands at present, the disputed quantities are the amount of money the canal would really cost and the length of time required to fill the depressions when the canals are completed. The time estimated for filling the depression around the Jordan and Dead Sea varies from nine months to one hundred years. Closer investigation is evidently needed before any definite conclusion is made.
—Lukertort, the champion of the London Chess Tournament, and Steintz, the champion of the Vunna tourney, are both in this country. This explains in part the unusual interest now taken in the scientific game of chess.
The two champions met each other in the rooms of the Manhattan Chess Club of New York City, recently, where the series of match games were going on between Philadelphia and New York players, but to the surprise of every one each wholly ignored the other, but gathered around himself a circle of admirers to whom he expressed a