INVENTIONS AT PANAMA. 



157 



ized state, so that the engineer is obliged to make many conjectures as to the 

 quality of the rock, in order to know what slope to give the excavation. 



Generally one is much puzzled. The Americans have discovered a method 

 of bringing up the rock itself in a shape large enough to admit of our judging as 

 to its hardness. A carrot, as the workmen call it, is fetched up. It is obtained 

 l)y means of a cylinder armed at its lower extremity with black diamonds. This 

 is given a rapid rotary motion ; it descends and penetrates into the rock, and in 

 this way we can bring up a block which furnislies the exact consistency of the 

 strata. We placed, before the eyes of the commission,* this morning, a box 

 of specimens taken in Culebra. The result is, that we have a perfect knowledge 

 of the ground, and it is these soundings which enable us to fix our prices. 



American ExrA\ATOK (i educed Irom cut in ' hcientibc ^meiican ) 



The following^ i-eference to these American soundings occurs in 

 Admiral G. H. Cooper's report to our Government on the progress of 

 the work, dated March 2, 1883. After observing that soundings to 

 ascertain the nature of the soil had been made all along the line, 

 he says : 



The first of these soundings were made by French ensineers, with the old- 

 fashioned drill and spoon to bring up specimens. This method took many 

 months and was very unsatisfactory ; and, finally, the contract for making the 

 remaining soundings was given to Mr. George R. Burt, an American, who is 

 connected with the Panama Railroad Company. Mr. Bin-t has used the Ameri- 

 can diamond-drill, and with it has accomplished more work in the past three 

 months than had been done by the other method in the previous two years. 



* The " Commission consultative " of enffineers. 



