THE PANAMA CANAL

New Zealand Tablet, 4 May 1911, Page 829

THE PANAMA CANAL

A DESCRIPTION OF A GREAT WORK Mr. James Cosgrove, writing from Gatun, Panama, on February 15, gives the following description of the work on the Panama Canal in the Belfast Irish Weekly: "Leaving New York five years ago June 9 next, on the s.s. Panam, and passing Sandy Hook in about two hours, we steamed almost direct south for Colon, passing many of the West India Islands, and arriving at Colon on the morning of the seventh day. The city or town of Colon was a ramshackle place of wooden houses and small cabins of the most primitive type, without streets, provision for sewerage or water, built on the Island of Manazillo, which is of coral formation, and just a little above sea level. One of the most uninviting places I have ever seen. My first experience was to get an introduction to an old Irishman, Martin Higgins, of the then Cosmopolitan Hotel, who had lived in Colon for upwards of thirty years, and is known as The Irish Consul' — well known, in fact, that a letter addressed ' Irish Consul,' Colon, from Valparaiso, was delivered to him here. Colon, from being the pest hole of the world, is now one of the healthiest cities in the world, and has systems of street sewerage, water, and lighting which will compare favorably with any city of its size in the globe; and it will probably retain its importance, being the Atlantic entrance to the canal, and will have a fine harbor, protected by a great breakwater—now in course of construction— nearly three miles in length. ' v Between Colon and Gatun the canal is sea level, and runs through a low-lying country, mostly alluvial, with the

exception of a few small hills at Mindi. The distance is seven miles, and the width is five hundred feet, depth forty-five feet. • ■;- ; : \ ' e " Arriving at Gatun, you get to one of the greatest works that has ever been undertaken by man. The building of a dam across the Chagres Vallev at Gatun, only a tew years ago was a dream ; to-day it is a reality. The dam from end to end is 1.8 miles long and 1900 feet at its greatest width. The crest of the dam is 115 feet above sea level, and the normal water level in Gatun Lake is 85 feet above sea level At that level the width of the dam is 6<5 feet. . The dam is semi-circular in shape, meeting and including elevations or hills in its contour which will reduce the cost of building. r o ln the construction of the , locks it was necessary to remove 5,500,000 cubic yards of earth and rock There are three sets of turn locks, 1000 feet in length and 110 feet in width. The centre wall has a width of 60 feet for its entire height and the side walls will be about 45 or 50 feet wide at the surface of the floor, narrowine at » point about 24 feet above the floor surface to 8 S wide at top The walls and floor are honeycombed with tun nels and culverts to fill and empty the locks very quickly' and also for electric machinery to tow all vessels as no ship will enter the locks under her own steam but will b e towed through with powerful electric motors. The lock gates will be steel structures 7 feet thick ftt feet long, and from 47 to 82 feet hi"h Th<Z Jl, '• u from 300 to 600 tons each. The entire steeFcon truSn will have a total weight of about 5700 tons, and the con crete will be about 500,000 cubic yards. ' These Lures" represent both the Atlantic and Pacific sides as they are tlhu m e + type s eXC6 & *? at on the Pa side there y is a double set, and one single set of locks. oo ~ From Gatun to Calebra there is not much of intprp,t tent W At b C«lp g h reat - a^ fi f a / lake of about 160 m le S nt in re ! tent At Calebra is that famous ' cut' which has the backbone of a continent. The total *nVl „L«l + i *? ia being the only potnf m the America,? &£%"*£'* tionf Ha C°ndilast look at Pedro Kiel vol.reach ,r * ' I™? 11 *' the n- *« to the Pacific bce£" £ looking &1 &% Z « ideal site overby Ancon Hill, rising' in conical form afout sea level—one of the most hpni,+i/,!i aoout oUU r ee t above ever seen. FormerivTt wit n*l eD,me ? ce! J vhich l have tinct for many centuries tL vol ?ano but has been exbuilt,, and has y some fin pub! buliawl P& ™™ is well beautiful churches and s ™™ build , ln£ \ and one or two great drawbacftoThe cVnTry, 5* is the excessive amount „r ra ;i c 51,80,1 1 ,80 , 1 ou the Atlantic, rainfall of 12 $ inches-on the A S a , mean ann ' Ja The main products of tl lf„t 6 ° lt *? ° nly about half • limes, lemons, and some rit+lJ a *•* bananas,, oranges, backward state, and carried on W" 6 ' u in a verv methods, and probablv Si 2Lo P by , the most primitive to the lack of roads as the wESL" S ° ? r S ? me years °»™g and the onlymeans' of eettS IT*** 1 mostl y JUnfi J e ' outside of the Canal zone £ J+i L ° ne place to another or by almost mpassJble trafu & 7 canoe ™ the rivers country. ""Passable tiails through a rough and uneven

ago, he occupied the Chair of Moral Theology in the Propaganda University. The hall in which he lectured soon became too small to accommodate the number of students who flocked ,to hear him.. During the long years of his professorship there never was a place to spare, there never was an inattentive listener, . and, it is true to add, "there was not a student unlearned in Moral Theology. Rome deeply mourns his loss, and foreign countries will -also sorely miss him. He was ever ready to help a brother professor, ever patient in hearing the difficulties of his students, ever calm and serene in his pronouncements. SCOTLAND CENTENARY OF BISHOP HAY. This year (says the Glasgow Observer) falls the centenary of the death of Bishop Hay, who closed his saintly and useful life on October 15, 1811; and it is proposed, with the cordial concurrence of their Lordships the Bishops of Scotland, and at the expressed desire of many leading Scottish Catholics, lay and clerical, to commemorate the event by a series of celebrations in the coining autumn. Representatives—-one clerical and one layhave been asked, and have willingly consented, to act as promoters of the scheme in each of the six Scottish dioceses, and the first general meeting of the committee was held in Edinburgh on March 2, when Canon Collins, of Ayr, was in the chair, and members present included Canon George Ritchie (Glasgow), Monsignor McGregor (Blairs College), Prior Willson (Fort Augustus), Mr. Charles George (Edinburgh), and others. Various preliminary matters were discussed, and certain points agreed on —(1) that the celebration should take place at St. Benedict's Abbey, Fort Augustus, where arrangements can be made for the accommodation of a considerable number of visitors; (2) that the date of the celebration should be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, September 12, 13, and 14. £.■'■ GENERAL THE ST. BERNARD HOSPICE. Canon Camille Carron, chief of the Grand St. Bernard Monks, has died at Martigny, at the age of fifty-nine years, after controlling the destinies of the St. Bernard and Simplon hospices, which belong to the St. Augustine monks, for the last twenty-five years. During this period the Canon saved the lives of hundreds of travellers on the two passes, and entertained many thousand others without asking a penny at the hospices. He reconstructed the Simplon route to make it fit for carriage traffic, created a motor-ear service from Aosta to provision the St.'Bernard hospice, had telephone stations built on the St. Bernard pass, to .help distressed travellers, improved the breed of the famous dogs as well as their training, and kept up the traditional hospitality of the Order