254 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ought to be located on the Panama route, and that it should be a sea 

 level canal without locks. The fact was apparently overlooked that the 

 range between high and low tides in the Bay of Panama, about twenty 

 feet, was so great as probably to require a tidal lock at that terminus. 



A company entitled 'Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocean- 

 ique ' was organized with Ferdinand de Lesseps as president, im- 

 mediately after the adjournment of the international congress. The 

 purpose of this company was the construction and operation of the 

 canal, and it purchased the Wyse concession from the original company 

 for the sum of 10,000,000 francs. An immediate but unsuccessful 

 attempt was made to finance the company in August, 1879. This 

 necessitated a second attempt, which was made in December, 1880, with 

 success, as the entire issue of 600,000 shares of 500 francs each was 

 sold. Two years were then devoted to examinations and surveys and 

 preliminary work upon the canal, but it was 1883 before operations 

 upon a large scale were begun. The plan adopted and followed by this 

 company was that of a sea level canal affording a depth of 29.5 feet and 

 a bottom width of 72 feet. It was estimated that the necessary exca- 

 vation would amount to 157,000,000 cu. yds. 



The Atlantic terminus of the canal route was located at Colon 

 and at Panama on the Pacific side. The line passed through the low 

 ground just north of Monkey Hill to Gatun, six miles from the 

 Atlantic terminus, and where it first met the Chagres River. For a 

 distance of twenty-one miles it followed the general course of the 

 Chagres to Obispo, but left it at the latter point and passing up the 

 valley of a small tributary cut through the continental divide at Culebra 

 and descended thence by the valley of the Rio Grande to the mouth of 

 that river where it enters Panama Bay. The total length of this line 

 from 30 ft. depth in the Atlantic to the same depth in the Pacific was 

 about 47 miles. The maximum height of the continental divide on the 

 center line of the canal in the Culebra cut was about 333 ft. above the 

 sea, which is a little higher than the lowest point of the divide in that 

 vicinity. Important considerations in connection with the adjacent 

 alignment made it advisable to cut the divide at a point not its lowest. 



Various schemes were proposed for the purpose of controlling the 

 floods of the Chagres River, the suddenness and magnitude of which 

 were at once recognized as among the greatest difficulties to be en- 

 countered in the construction of the work. Although it was seriously 

 proposed at one time to control this difficulty by building a dam across 

 the Chagres at Gamboa that plan was never adopted, and the problem 

 of control of the Chagres floods remained unsolved for a long period. 



It was estimated by de Lesseps in 1880 that eight years would be 

 required for the completion of the canal, and that its cost would be 

 $127,600,000. The company prosecuted its work with activity until 



