198 



NATURE 



[December 28, 1905 



THE PANAMA CANAL. 



TN the issue of August 24 a review was given of 

 -!■ General Abbot's book on " Problems of the 

 Panama Canal," published this year; and in this 

 book the construction of a canal with locks across the 



Isthmus of Panama, in preference to a sea-level 

 canal, was strongly insisted upon. The October 

 number, however, of the National Geographic 

 Magazine, published in Washington, contains an 

 article on "The Panama Canal," 

 by Rear-Admiral Colby M. Chester, 

 U.S.N., in which the advantages 

 of a sea-level canal are quite as 

 urgently advocated. Accordingly, 

 the only points which have hitherto 

 been definitely settled by the United 

 States Government assuming the re- 

 sponsibility for the construction of 

 the canal, are the final selection of 

 the Panama route for the inter- 

 oceanic canal and the consequent 

 abandonment of the rival Nicar- 

 agua scheme, and the certainty of 

 adequate funds being available for 

 the completion of the Panama 

 ("anal, the wanl of capital having 

 proved the most serious obstacle in 

 the progress of the works when 

 under the control of a private 

 French company. 



There are undoubtedly several 

 difficulties connected with this en- 

 terprise which have still to be over- 

 come, such as scarcity of labour and 

 unsanitary conditions in a pro- 

 verbially unhealthy tropical climate; 

 the vast amount of excavation that 

 has to be accomplished in cutting Fi<„ 2. 



through the high central ridge con- 

 stituting the divide between the Atlantic and Pacific 

 watersheds (Fig. 1), composed in the higher portions 

 of treacherous strata exposed to an exceptionally heavy 

 rainfall; and the control of the great torrential floods 



ol the river Chagres cutting in several places across 

 thi' line adopted for the canal, which follows the 

 valley of the river along the Atlantic slope. These 

 impediments, however, in course of time, by the help 

 of ample funds, the progress of sanitary science, the 

 greal improvements effected in excavating and dredg- 

 ing plant (Fig. 2), and the increased 

 experience gained in the construc- 

 tion of reservoir dams, should not 

 prove insurmountable. In reality, 

 the question which at the present 

 time demands a definite and early 

 decision is whether the canal is to 

 be constructed with a summit-level 

 a considerable height above sea- 

 level, to be reached by means ol 

 locks on each slope, or is to be ex- 

 cavated down to a sufficient depth 

 to form a sea-level canal with only 

 a regulating lock, 4', miles from 

 the Pacific coast u> Panama, to 

 prevent the tidal rise in the Pacific 

 Ocean of 21J feet at springs creat- 

 ing injurious currents into and out 

 of the canal. 



When the Panama ("anal scheme 

 was started at Paris in [879, M. de 

 Lesseps insisted that it should be 

 constructed at sea-level, like the 

 Suez Canal; and the works were 

 commenced in 1SS1 on thai basis, 

 reiving upon the eventual success of 

 the earlier work, without adequate 

 preliminary investigations, and 

 without due consideration of the 

 differences in the conditions of 

 In 1887 the unexpectedly large 

 progress of the works led the 

 nal company to diminish considerably the amount of 

 cavation by the introduction of locks, thereby effect- 



md 



sites, 

 slow 



ing a large reduction in the ultimate expenditure, and 

 in the time required for the completion of the canal, 

 as can be readily appreciated by a reference to the 

 longitudinal section of the canal with locks (Fig. 3). 



NO. 1887, VOL. 73] 



