448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Isthmus. Messrs. Yignaud, Barbaud, Blanleuil & Co. have the 

 second division, which includes the Tavernilla, San Pablo, Gorgona, 

 and Matachin sections, and is 17"65 kilometres long. They have built 

 several railways in France, and are experienced in the construction of 

 internal canals. The thii-d falls to the Societe de Travaux Publics et 

 Constructions, which has a capital of $600,000, and is known in France 

 and Brazil for successful railway work ; it consists of the sections of 

 Obispo and Emperador, and is 9*6 kilometres long. The fourth, or sec- 

 tion of Culebra, extends over 3*4 kilometres, and is controlled by the 

 young and energetic firm of Artigue, Sonderegger & Co, ; and Messrs. 

 Baratoux, Letellier & Co. have agreed to open the last division to the 

 waters of the Pacific within the next two years. It is 17 kilometres 

 long, and extends from the Culebra to Panama. The company has 

 also established three physical divisions, each with reference to the en- 

 gineering problems involved. The first is 44 kilometres long, and 

 extends from Colon to the Gamboa hills at Matachin, the difficulty 

 lying in the vicinity of the Chagres. The second lies between Gam- 

 boa and the end of the Culebra ; it contains the highest summits and 

 the greatest quantity of rock, and it will be the line of deepest cuts. 

 The third extends from the Culebra to the Pacific ; here the earth will 

 admit of dredging throughout, but the Rio Grande must be deflected 

 from the line of the canal. 



The first division begins at Colon with a terre-plein that was for- 

 merly the site of a marsh, containing 236,000 cubic metres of earth, 

 and surrounded by a sea-wall ; the terre-plein protects the entrance 

 of the canal from the waves that would enter otherwise from the Bay 

 of Limon. It is the site also of the village of Christoval-Colon, where 

 the offices and quarters of the section employes are found. 



As the Bay of Limon is exposed to the sea and to the gales of this 

 region, the company is making a new harbor, which is styled the port 

 of Colon. It lies south of the terre-i:)lein, and, when complete, will 

 be formed by Fox River and the expansion of the first 3 kilometres 

 of the canal into a basin. The width of tho entrance will be 800 me- 

 tres ; thence to the six-hundredth metre of length, the breadth of the 

 basin will decrease to 500 metres, and will remain uniform as far as 

 the second kilometre, whence it will narrow gradually to the third, 

 where the normal surface width of 40 metres begins. A curved break- 

 water of 1,500 metres length will prolong the right bank into the bay, 

 and will further protect the port from winds and waves. The new 

 port will afford security to vessels and every facility of wharfage for 

 handling cargo. 



The canal is open to water as far as the seventeenth kilometre from 

 Colon, except at the Mindi hills, where a cut of 1,080 metres remains 

 to be completed. Its width for the first 500 yards is 225 metres ; 

 throughout the remainder of the basin it varies from 175 to 80 metres, 

 and finally narrows to the normal at the third kilometre. The delay 



