INTEROCEANIO CANAL. 



511 



1) explorers was essentially different from 

 tli.tt of too various American surveys. Hav- 

 ing in view the development of the higher 

 uarine commerce in enormous iron ves- 

 M! her than the commercial profitableness 

 of the canal itself, and being unwilling to de- 

 part from the model of the Suez Canal, they 

 wore not dismayed at a prospective cost en- 

 tirely disproportionate to any immediate com- 

 mercial needs. The material interests of the 

 American public, on the other hand, seemed 

 more identified with the construction of a canal 

 which would be more hopeful as a commercial 

 venture, and promised to return the usual 

 profits to investors, and which would accom- 

 modate the smaller classes of vessels which 

 now form the bulk of their marine. 



The Wyse-Reclus route runs from the Bay 

 of Liraon, with its terminus at the town of 

 Golon or Aspinwall, to the Gulf of Panama. 

 The canal starts from the natural harbor at 

 Aspinwall, at a point where its depth is 8J 

 metres, crosses the marsh of Mindi, and attains 

 the Chagres after two alignments in the vi- 

 cinity of Gatun. It keeps close to the river, 

 crossing its bed in several places, as far as 

 Matachin, changing its direction seven times 

 in the interval, and crossing the line of the 

 railroad at Barbacoas, where a swing-bridge 

 will have to be constructed. Beyond Matachin 

 the canal occupies the valley of the Obispo, 

 which descends from the pass of Oulebra, at a 

 point where the ground is 40 metres above the 

 mean tide-level. From this point it is neces- 

 sary to cut a tunnel 7,700 metres in length 

 through the mountain. The canal emerges at 

 a point where the ground has the same eleva- 

 tion as at the entrance to the tunnel ; and, oc- 

 cupying the valley of the Rio Grande, after 

 three more curves it terminates in the Gulf of 

 Panama next to the islands of Naos and Fla- 

 menco, at a spot where the depth is 7*3 metres 

 at the lowest tides. The line has a total length 

 of 75 kilometres. The curves, 13 in number, 

 are none of them of a shorter radius than 3,000 

 metres. It borrows the course of the streams 

 throughout its entire length, and would receive 

 the whole of the drainage of the two valleys 

 which it follows. Where it encounters the 

 Chagres at Matachin, a cataract of 15 metres 

 fall would necessitate a lateral cutting to con- 

 duct the river into it by a longer course; and 

 similar labors would have to be performed in 

 other places to protect it from streams which 

 become formidable torrents in the rainy sea- 

 son. The depth of the canal is 8'5 metres be- 

 low the mean tide at its terminus in the Bay 

 of Limon, and by an incline which is distrib- 

 uted over the entire line it is lowered about 

 2 metres, or to 10*55 metres below the mean 

 tide-mark, at its Pacific terminus, in order to 

 have at that point a depth at the lowest neap- 

 tide of 7'3 metres. The width at bottom is 20 

 metres throughout its course, and in the har- 

 bors this is gradually widened to 100 metres 

 just before the points where the natural depth 



is sufficient. The incline of the banks is 1 in 

 2 in the submerged portions at the termini ; ty 

 in 15 in the alluvial soil on the Atlantic side, 

 which extends about 20 kilometres; and in 

 the earthy portion on the Pacific side, about 

 10 kilometres in extent, 10 in 15; and in the 

 rocky portions which occupy the whole central 

 part of the route, 0| of elevation to 3 of base, 

 which sharper incline leaves the width of the 

 surface at mean tide-level only 82 metres. In 

 the tunnel the width at water-line is further 

 reduced to 24 metres at mean tide, and the 

 incline of the sides is increased to 2 of lateral 

 extension to 9i or 10 of elevati >n. Above 

 the water the cross section profile of the tun- 

 nel has the form of a Gothic arch terminating 

 in an arc with a radius of 4 metres, whoso 

 summit is 34 metres above the mean tide-level. 

 The cross-section of the tunnel, above and be* 

 low the surface of the water, is an average 

 area of 780 square metres. These dimensions 

 do not permit vessels to cross each other while 

 under way. At distances averaging 9 kilo- 

 metres there will be stations where the width 

 is expanded, in which vessels going in one di- 

 rection will wait while those going in the op- 

 posite direction pass by. The flow of the wa- 

 ter in the canal, it was calculated, would not 

 exceed l - 7 metre per second. The rise of 

 level in the tunnel during the period of fresh- 

 ets would never, it was hoped, be greater than 

 6 metres. To avoid the danger of a sudden 

 rush of water into the canal after a rain-storm, 

 it was proposed to build dams at different 

 points in the upper valley of the Chagres, 

 where the rocky banks approach each other, 

 by which the waters would be retained in 

 large natural reservoirs, and the discharge of 

 the river in times of flood be reduced to the 

 maximum of 200 or 300 metres a second. The 

 Bay of Limon, which would serve as the port 

 on the Atlantic side, is generally calm, being 

 protected from the northeasterly winds, which 

 blow with considerable violence in the dry 

 season, by the island of Manzanillo: for the 

 sake of additional security a sea-wall was pro- 

 posed in the project, which would have a 

 length of 850 metres. The entrance channel 

 on the Pacific side, where stormy weather is 

 of rare occurrence, would be sufficiently pro- 

 tected by walls on each side constructed from 

 the rock excavated in the cuttings. 



The plan for executing the work was to 

 commence by leveling the line on the Pacific 

 side down to the mean level of the Cbagres 

 and the Rio Grande, and to excavate the tun- 

 nel down to 10 or 12 metres above the final 

 level ; then to turn the Chagres into this new 

 channel, and make it empty into the Pacific 

 while its old bed is being lowered to the re- 

 quired level of the canal; and then, after the 

 Atlantic division has been completed, to make 

 it again the channel of the Chagres, and com- 

 plete the excavations in the tunnel and on the 

 Pacific side. In this way all would be dry ex- 

 cavation above the tide-level, and no blasting 



