lo JUNGLE ISLAND 



through the hills until the salt water of the two 

 oceans met in a deep channel through which 

 ocean ships could sail without stopping. This 

 plan took so much expensive digging that they 

 decided instead to build a canal with locks to 

 lift ships up to a higher channel. This is the 

 plan now used by the Americans in the Canal. 



From Colon on the Atlantic side a sea-level 

 canal was shoveled out through the low country 

 seven miles to Gatun Locks. You can see this 

 on the map of the Canal Zone, as well as another 

 seven-mile sea-level canal on the Pacific side below 

 Miraflores Locks. Joining the two is a great 

 man-made fresh-water lake, whose surface is 

 about eighty-five feet above sea level. 



Part of the bed of this lake is the valley of the 

 Chagres River. Where the river turns sharply 

 away into the hills at Gamboa, as the map (page 1 1) 

 shows, so that its valley can no longer be used, the 

 engineers have cut straight through to Miraflores 

 Locks a long, narrow passageway. 



Along this nine-mile stretch the engineers had 

 much trouble. The rock and clay of the hillsides 

 were soft, and when they were disturbed by digging 

 they had an unexpected way of slipping down 

 overnight into the cuts that were being made, 

 burying the tools and leaving all the digging to 

 be done over again. 



The hills were covered, not only with a tangle 

 of plants, but also with many feet of fine red 



