THE PANAMA CANAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1011, 29 December 1910, Page 8

THE PANAMA CANAL.

•' » — "MOST INTERESTING PLACE IN THE WORLD." AN ENORMOUS UNDERTAKING. As we steamed into the Bay of Limou (writes Dr. Yaughan Cornish in the "Daily Mail") we. saw on our right tho buoyed channel which marks the commencement of the Panama Canal. It begins at the forly-fcot sounding, and that depth below sea level is maintained up to the low-lying shore and on through the Swamps to the great Gatun locks, which wo could plainly see seven miles off. Landing at Colon, the Atlantic port of tile canal, one proceeds by train to Gatun, whero a considerable'town has arisen. Hero tho valley of tho Chagres River is being barred by a great earthen dam, behind which ft lake will bo iormed by the ponded waters ot the river. The surface of this lake ivill .be eighty-five leet above sea. The flight of three locks situated the dam and the adjoining hills will, raise ships to'tlie surface of this lake'. Theso locks are of unprecedented size, and will easily take the largest ships of commerce or war, built or building. Their length is a. thousand, their breadth 0110 hundred and ten feet.

Through the middle of' the dam thero is a broad, concrete-floored channel through which the turbulent. ChagresBiver now rushes in a. muddy tcirrent. The locks'ami dam together, though'but half finished, arc already a .wonderful sight and promise to be lu every way a- success. Tho water level of eighty-five feet will b9 maintained by Gatun Dam across the twenty-three miles of .the.broad lake and on through the eight miles of the Culebca cutting to the corresponding dam at Pedro Miguel, which blocks the southern, or Pacific, end of 'the'cutting. Here a single lock will lower ; vessels to the surface of the other clam., at its southern end.. Thence the canal bottom is fortyfive feet' below mean, sea level, the" last three or four miles, being excavated beneath the shallow waters of the Bay. of Panama. The Whole'length of the canal from deep sea to deep sea>is about fifty miles, of which about •thirty-two have a surface level of eight-five feet. The depth of the canal will nowhere be less than forty feet. For more than twenty miles after passing Gatiin Dam there is little to show; ■that any canal is being made, except a kind of wide lane or track through the forest and bush from .which trees arid shrubs have been cleared.. This is the liiio of tho channel to be followed by ships in their passage. of Lake Gatun.. All . the, surrounding forest will be submerged by its waters over an area of IG4 square miles. In otherwords, this artificial tako will be. twice the size of the. Lago Maggiore. At-Gamboa, rather more than h;uiway. across the isthmus, tho line of the canal leaves the valley of the Chagres River. and enters the great Culebra cutting, the eight-mile trench through tho backbone of the continent.

' The World's Deepest Cutting. 'This enormous trench is already, I believe, much the deepest open cutting in the World. It. is here that the magnitude of task undertaken by th« American Government is best .realised. Looking down from the hillside, one can see tho inorm'ous collection of, steam shovels, rock drills, locomotive's, and spoil-trains which are massed in "the cut." From the great trench arise dust' and smoke, .the roar, the rattle, and tho rumble of machinery) and, from time to time, the splitting crack .of dynamite tearing ■ into pieces the basalt-: roct-of ■■ which the hills.'aro made. So large is the scale that the multitude of men below aro scarcely to be distinguished as they move about among the huge machinery and the masses of tumbled rock. Yet there, aro forty thousand men at work 011 'the canal—enough, if ..'lined up, to touch hands across; its whole length from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

I have visited the works repeatedly during 1907, 1908,. and 1910, in company with Coloiiel Goethals, -U.S.A., ;and the 'divisional engineers of the Caiial Commission, and I have never mot men in" whom high intellect and great, energy are more hap,pily combined. - ■ -

(Julebra (Jut terminates at the Pedro Miguel lock, where we enter on what is known as tho Pacific division of the canal. Here tho Panama' Railroad leaves tlie line of the canal, so that this section is less. known to tourists and to the general public. It presents, however, many 'features of .great interest to '.engineers. ;Perhaps what strikes the layman most is the made'of dealing with tho, sealevel portion below Jliraflores locks, where the lino of the canal is through extensive swamps, subject to flooding by the title. Instead : of' building banks to make a channel, the "spoil" from excava-. tions is being/spread .out uniformly over the swamps 'so 'as to raise them above tide 1eve1.,.. Thus the tidal waters of . the canal channel will be Confined, and at the. same time a large tract of land will be made available Jar building clo?e to the new port of Balboa, which is rising at the Pacilic end of the canal. From this port the sea channel has already been completely dredged and is in use. When I think of all that is going on at Panama, and of tlie'intense interest of it when once one gets to cjose quarters, I am amazed that men dojiot flock there to see these .things. The isthmus .iust now is by far the most interesting piae'e •in the work), and one of the. healthiest places in tho tropics for the tourist. .1 say for tho tourist, for he is dependent upon hotels, and the hotel built by the Canal Commission near Panama is pro-perly-protected by wire screens from "the mosquito, jind is conducted in accordance .'with the rigid hygienic rules enforced upon all who dwell in the canal zone.-

We look for the opening of the canal on "January 1, 1915. It will be of enormous political and military importance to the United States. But it will also afford "new facilities to many parts of the British Empire. The sea route from Vancouver to Liverpool will be shortened by.no less than six thousand miles. Australia and Now Zealand will be brought more than three thousand miles nearerto the manufacturing and consuming centres of the Eastern States. Our 'West Indian possessions, instead of being situated in a cul-de-sac, will bo on one of the great highways of commerce. Finally, much of tlin ocean traffic between foreign ports, via Panama, will undoubtedly be carried in British vessels. These tilings will come about very shortly, and it behoves all who follow tho great ovents which are shaping the-world to understand what, is going on at Panama.