THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 425 



General U. S. Army (retired) : Frederic P. Stearns, chief engineer of 

 the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, Boston; Joseph Eipley, 

 general superintendent of the St. Mary's Falls Canal : Isham Eandolph, 

 chief engineer of the Sanitary District, Chicago ; AVm. Henry Hunter, 

 chief engineer of the Manchester Ship Canal ; Eugen Tincauzer, Konig- 

 lich Preussischer Regierungs-und-Baurath, Konigsherg, Germany; 

 Adolphe Guerard, inspector general des Fonts et Chaussees, France; 

 E. Quellennec, chief engineer des Fonts et Chaussees and consulting 

 engineer of the Suez Canal Company, France ; and J. W. Welcker, 

 Hoofdingenieur, Directeur van den Pyks-Waterstaat, Tlie iSTetherlands. 



On this board of engineers were the tliree members of the first 

 canal commission,- General Davis, Professor Burr and Mr. Parsons, 

 who a few months before had submitted a recommendation favoring a 

 sea-level canal. Other members of the board were known to favor a 

 lock canal. The members of tlie l)oard therefore naturally fell into two 

 groups of which one was friendly to the sea-le^•el, the other to the lock 

 type of canal, and to the committees appointed from these groups was 

 assigned the task of discussing the canal junblem from the two diverg- 

 ent standpoints. The board as a whole, liowevcr, passed on certain 

 features in order that the conclusions thus reached might serve as a 

 guide in determining otlier features of the projects. Thus it was re- 

 solved that locks should have a usable length of 1,000 feet, a width of 

 100 feet and a depth of 40 feet. The board determined, too, upon the 

 type and dimensions of the canal section which should be made the 

 basis of a comparison of cost estimates. 



The consulting engineers visited the isthmus and thus learned 

 much, by personal observation, of the conditions under wliich the canal 

 work must be prosecuted. 



As a result of their studies the members of the lock-canal committee 

 of the board of engineers submitted four projects. Two of these were 

 for a canal with a summit level at 60 feet and the otlier two for a canal 

 with its highest section at 85 feet. 



Other projects for the lock-type of canal were jiresented by Mr. 

 Lindon AY. Bates, by Mr. P. Bunau-Varilla and by Major C. E. Gil- 

 lette, of the engineer corps of the U. S. Army. Mr.- Bates presented 

 three projects with a preference expressed for a plan including a terminal 

 lake at each end of the canal, of which the lake at tb.e Atlantic end was 

 to be formed by a dam at Mindi and the lake at the Pacific end by 

 dams from Ancon to Sosa Hill and from Sosa Hill across the Eio 

 Grande. Under this project there would also be an intermediate lake, 

 formed by a dam across the Chagres Eiver at Bohio. The summit level 

 suggested was 62 feet. 



^ Of the other members of the first commission Admiral Walker had re- 

 turned to private life, INIajor Harrod had been named on the second commission 

 and the writer had accepted the position of chief consulting engineer in the 

 Reclamation Service under the Secretary of the Interior. 



