secret has long been out and referred to securing orders for naval vessels 

 from American shipyards. 



On arrival at Cristobal, a messenger from Colonel Goethals met me 

 at the pier and gave me a blanket railroad pass, which enabled me to 

 travel by train as much and as often as I liked. I went immediately to 

 Panama, getting some glimpses of the Canal on the way. Indeed, on 

 that trip I had one of the most impressive views of the great work that 

 I had at any time. The railroad then crossed the line of the Canal near 

 Pedro Miguel and from that bridge we looked back through nearly the 

 whole length of the Culebra Cut, then flooded with the light of the 

 setting sun. It was overwhelming and looked like a great canyon through 

 the mountains; that it was a man-made valley seemed altogether incred- 

 ible. We all put up at the immense Hotel Tivoli, which is at Ancon, just 

 outside of the city of Panama and within the Canal Zone. 



I had a letter of introduction to Colonel Gorgas and called on him 

 after dinner, immediately recognising him as one of the acquaintances 

 I had made in Havana. As he was a warm friend of my Brother's, he 

 received me very cordially and, during my stay, did a great deal to 

 render my visit interesting. Thus began one of the most fascinating 

 weeks in all my experience. Every facility was given me to inspect the 

 Canal from end to end. The geologist of the Canal Commission, Mr, 

 McDonald, guided me through the Culebra Cut, the structure in which 

 is highly complicated and, without such skilled guidance, I should have 

 been lost, for the short time I could be there. Of course, the first deep 

 impression made upon me was the colossal scale of the work, both in 

 excavation and construction, and I have always been glad that it was 

 my privilege to visit the Isthmus at a time when the immensity of it all 

 was clearly displayed. 



In the finished Canal, so much of the vast work is hidden under 

 water that the visitor can form but a very imperfect conception of all 

 that was accomplished. Colonel Goethals once remarked to me: "When 

 the Canal is finished and in use, people will come down here and say: 

 'those fellows who did the work were the worst grafters in history; 

 where did all that money go?' " This was merely a jesting way of saying 

 that the finished work would reveal but a relatively small part of the 

 unconscionable total. Under Mr. McDonald's guidance, I gained an 

 entirely new conception of the geological history of the Isthmus and one 

 which fitted very much better in the results of our work in Patagonia 

 and in western North America than did the old account given by the 



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