146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



apparent that the company is aware of the difficulties ahead, and is 

 taking what steps under the circumstances are possible. Important 

 announcements were made at the last annual meeting, July 21st. To 

 reduce the ultimate cost, significant changes, De Lesseps stated, had 

 been determined upon. The immense dam, as to which so much con- 

 troversy has existed, is suppressed. The tide-lock, which was to have 

 been built at the Pacific terminus, is eliminated ; also the basin, five 

 kilometres long, at the center of the Isthmus. Nor is the intimation 

 lacking that the dimensions of the channel itself may be reduced. When 

 the president of the company observes that after his inspection of the 

 work, to occur in a few months, he will finally be able to state how 

 the completion of the undertaking is to be effected, one can not but 

 ask whether, to furnish as expeditiously as i:)Ossible a provisional, 

 serviceable channel, the plan of a lock-canal may not be adopted. 

 Such a solution is not wholly improbable. Subsequently, if the pros- 

 pects of the enterprise allow, for the above solution the original plan 

 may be substituted ; the channel may be cut to the sea-level. The 

 adoption of a lock plan, the summit level to be fed by the Chagres,, 

 has been for months, and is still, under consideration by the engineer- 

 ing authorities. 



By means of whatever instrumentalities, whether of an engineer- 

 ing or non-engineering type, the company is to proceed with the work, 

 and whatever doubt attaches to the choice of these, none seems ad- 

 missible as to completion itself. This can hardly be considered a 

 question. Such a view is confirmed by the recent inspection of the 

 work by Lieutenant Charles C. Rogers, U. S, Navy, a brief reference 

 to whose views occurs in an addendum to the present article. While 

 much interest attaches to aspects of the case, which have been referred 

 to — instrumentalities to be employed and the decisions of scientific 

 authorities — there is a question which has not received the attention it 

 deserves, and which is intimately connected with the financial out- 

 come. This it is proposed to examine. How far has the faculty of 

 contrivance and that of invention accelerated the work ? How far 

 may it be expected to in future ? Such an aspect of the case deserves 

 more attention than many suppose. 



The hostility of England to the Suez Canal placed that enterprise 

 for a time in a critical position, by bringing about the abolition of 

 forced labor. But this opposition was in fact the best aid tliat could 

 have been furnished the undertaking, for it led to the invention of 

 machines which shortened and cheapened the work to a remarkable 

 degree. These inventions have been of service in similar enterprises 

 ever since. Had less efficient devices been brought out at Suez, De 

 Lesseps might well have hesitated before entering upon the more diffi- 

 cult task at Panama. But to meet these more serious obstacles, he 

 possessed mechanical appliances far superior to the rude enginery 

 of 1854. And if, as it is reasonable to anticipate, further radical im- 



