THE PANAMA CANAL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2590, 16 February 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PANAMA CANAL.

The Colonial Guardian, Belize (British Honduras), gives some information, supplied by a correspondent, Mr R. H. C. Buruham, about tke Panama Canal. Mr Bui'Dham has spent many years in the Isthmus in various capacities, was for some time m the employ of the Panama Canal Company, and for the past three years has been in the empioy of the Pacific Mail Company. He is familiar with every portion of the Panama Canal, having seen the works as they stand at present, and his views on the present condition and prospects of that work may be taUen as authoritative. According to Mr Burnham, beginning at Colon, there are about seventeen miles of canal dug. This has been done by the American Contracting and "Dredging Company (the Slaven Bros., of California), the only contractors on the whole work who have gone about their task and carried it through in an energetic and business-like manner. This work is dredging through alluvial soil, the ground being in no case over twenty feet above the water level. At Mindi there was a rock cut of 200 metres in length, with an extreme depth of ten metres. This rock work was only completed about a year ago, that dredging having to wait some time for its completion. This seventeen miles bring the work up to the heavy rock cut at Bollio, which extends for about four miles. This cutting is down almost to the required depth. The extreme depth of tliia cut is about sixty feet, the mean being about fifty. Tlie rock at this point ia gneiss so extremely hard that it is almost impossible to make ordinary steel drills penetrate it. Blacksmiths who can sharpen drills so as to make them effective in this rock earn as high as S3 per day. Dynamite is the only explosive that has been found effective. Beyond Bollio, for a distance of about eight miles, the work is through alluvial soil to Matachin, where the real magnitude of the undertaking begins to be appreciated. To begin with, the Chagres river crosses the canal here, and it is proposed to build a gigantic dam to raise the level of the river to supply feed, for the canal locks, (the tide water canal scheme hiving been abandoned some time ago). A very moderate estimate of what is required of this dam would place its estimated height at 120 feet and its length at 2000 feet. It will be placed between two mountains. The cutting which begins at Matachin will bo i-eventeenor eighteen miles in length, and ranging in depth from a minimum of 120 feet'to a maximum of 300 feet. This stupendous cutting will bo through intensely hard gneissoid and volcanic formation of the same character as that found at Bohio. At Culebva in this same nutting there is met with what threatens to be an insurmountable obstacle. On the .south side of the lino of the canal a mountain rests on the guee-oid formation through which the out is being made. The formation through which the canal must run lies at an angle of 4"> degrees, and it seems to have formed a brace or support for the mountain above it, its lower extremity resting agaiust the base of a monntain, which rises north of the cutting. As fast as the rock is excavated the enormous weight of the superincumbent mountain gradually forces in the south wall of the cutting, slowly but surely narrowing and closing the channel. How this great force is to bo successfully resisted is a problem that has not yet been solved. At Culbebra the big eighteen mile cut ends, and beyond, all the way to the harbour at Panama, the formation is chiefly coral, the cutting ranging from zero to thirty feet above, the normal depth of the canal having to be excavated below zero. As nil this latter work is at tidewater level, a very large proportion of it will be wet cutting. The high li les prevailing at Panama present another engineering difficulty, which will have to be overcome at considerable expense. In the western section of the canal, from Culebra to Panama, zero means the high tide level, and in order to prevent the water from lecediug ami leaving the canal empty at low water, locks or floodgates must be constructed at Panama to retain high tide level in the ca.ial. It is stated that while the tide at Panama is twenty feet, that at Asp:nwall is only twenty inches. Thout'li the original estimates for the Panama Canal were only $120,000,000 it is now estimated that the present liabilities of the enterprise exceed £350,000,01)0, while more than three quarters of the work remains to be accomplished.

Mr Burnham reports the sanitary condition of . the Isthmus as excellent. Splendid hospitals liave been Imilt by the Canal Comoany, the one at Panama linving cost" 2,000,000d015. In these hospitals the Sisters of Charity labour with untiling devotion. The sickness prevailing among the labourers is, he says, largely duo to their own improvidence and dissipation. Labourers were paid from 2dols. to 2 50dols. per day ; but, instead of making themselves comfortable with the proceeds, they would buy the cheapest food, sleep on the ground, and spend the rest of their money in gambling and disoipatfon. When asked about the morals of the locality, Mr Burnha-n laconically replied, " There are no morals there."