Through The Canal.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 2 July 1918, Page 2

Through The Canal.

In the course of a letter to hia sister, Private 11. A. Rolston, of Ohau, gives an interesting description of a. visit to the Panaima. Canal several'montlis ago. He says: "Four days ago we saw on© of the wonders of the world, .and I will try any tell you a little about it.' 'Our first call was at Balboa, at the entrance lo the Canal. It is a very pretty place, a large town, with the buildings near the wharf all on© pattern, bungalow style, having been built by the United States Government, and provided rent free for those who work on the Canal. The white people were homely and kind and provided ua with books, papers, fruit cigarettes, etc. . . We left Balboa in the morning and had to be to- ; wed by another boat as our .propellers were too big and would probably cause the sides of the Canal t'o fall in. In about half an hour we reached the first lock, the Pedro Miguel. Its length is 1000 feet and the width 110 feet, and it is 85 feet deep. /In this lock we were lifted 32 feet up in • this way: YV e snilccl into the* lock and the big gates were shut, behind us. Then the doors were opened in front and the water was let in. Wli&n thß lock was full we moved on and when we came to the next set of locks, the same course was followed. Altogether we were lifted 96 fe&tJust fancy raising a boat like ours 96 feet! The country round about is very poor indeed. In the way of cattle all we saw was about five bullocks; the vehicles are drawn mostly by mules. . Then we came down into a big. Lake which covers 145 sq. miles and is more or less artificially! made. Lower down we calme to the Gatun locks, which are in three sots. They are at>out üb© same size as the others, but instead of lifting us up they let us down. Of course at every set. of locks we hai to stop until the lock was full of water or emptied whichever the case might be and we got a great reception at every place from those on shore. At Balboa they let the Maoris get out on the wharf aiW. give a haka -—in fact three or four, while the niggers stood baek and looked on. The band came down and played to us, and also at Gatun. Then we moved on again' outside the Canal and called in at Colon for about three hours. We were not allowed to gb ashore ,at any of these places. The length of the from 300 feet to 650 feet the Canal is 40 miles. The width _is bottom and from 500 to 1000 feet at the top. It took us eight hours to go from one end to the other. It was a day to be remembered and I can tell you I valued the' "•lasses that day. The electricity from the great power station drives all the machinery and it takes 44,000 volts, so that will give you some idea of the power used. There were 40,000 men employed in cutting the Canal and thousands of them died from fever. The cost of the work was about £73,0110,000. But one would want to see the Canal to know what it is like. It is impossible to describe its beauty and workmanship, especially" considering it has been put through hilly country."