420 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Seacoing Suction Dredge Ancon taking on Coal near Dry Dock at Cristobel. 

 This and other photographs are from the Annual Reports of the Commission. 



of adequate data was sorely felt by the members of the commission and 

 it was soon found that no satisfactory conclusion could be reached with- 

 out supplementing by additional exploration witli the auger and other- 

 wise, the information disclosed by records of surveys, borings and 

 shafts, which had been made by the engineers of the French canal com- 

 panies. There had been no explorations to sea-level by shaft or by 

 borings in the central sections of the canal yet this information was 

 now of paramount importance for the determination of safe slopes for 

 the sides of the deep cuts. In the absence of such information no satis- 

 factory conclusion could be reached relating to the amount of material 

 that would have to be excavated to maintain a great open cut at Cule- 

 bra. The side slopes of this cut must be so flat that they will stand 

 permanently. They should be as steep as they can safely be held in 

 order that the quantity of excavation may not be unnecessarily in- 

 creased. For the solution of this problem, it was necessary to know not 

 only the character of all material to be encountered down to sea-level, 

 but to a depth of over 40 feet below sea-level. Incomplete or unre- 

 liable data would tlirow more or less doubt upon the conclusions 

 reached. 



The commission of 1904, therefore, entered at once upon the col- 

 lection of additional data and hoped to be able to reach an intelligent 

 conclusion relating to the type of the canal at an early date. The 

 published proceedings of the commission show that on December 8, 

 1904, seven months after the United States had taken possession of 

 the canal properties, it was resolved to send the committee on engineer- 

 ing, coDsisting of Professor W. H. Burr, Wm. Barclay Parsons, and 

 Major B. M. Ilarrod to the isthmus 



