December 28, 1905] 



NA TURE 



199 



This is the principle upon which work on the canal 

 since that time has been conducted, with modifica- 

 tions from time to time in the proposed summit-level ; 

 it was followed, after the failure of the old company in 

 [SSS, by the new company constituted in 1894, so 

 far as their limited funds permitted; it was approved 

 by the various French Commissions which reported 

 on the canal; and it was adopted by the International 

 Isthmian Canal Commission of 1899-1901, which sub- 

 mitted to Congress the design shown by the accom- 

 panying longitudinal section and plan. This design 

 consists of a summit-level 2\\ miles long, with its 

 water-level 82 to 90 feet above mean sea-level, reached 

 from the sea-level portion of the canal on the Atlantic 

 side, 16 4-5 miles long, by two adjoining locks at 

 Bohio, and from the sea-level section on the Pacific- 

 side, about Sh miles long, by a lock at Miraflores 

 arresting the tide and raising the water-level of the 



construction of the Panama Canal," in which a sea- 

 level canal is recommended, thereby abandoning the 

 proposals of all the engineers who had previously 

 studied the question since 1888, and reverting to the 

 original scheme of M. de Lesseps. This project con- 

 sists of a canal with a bottom-width of 150 feet, 

 .1 minimum depth of water of 35 feet, and 

 twin tidal locks at Miraflores having an avail- 

 able length of 1000 feet and a width of 100 

 feet ; and it is estimated that this canal could be 

 completed in ten or twelve years at a cost of 

 230,500,000 dollars, the Chagres River being con- 

 trolled by a dam at Gamboa, forming a lake from 

 which the surplus waters would be discharged by a 

 tunnel through the dividing ridge into another river- 

 basin. The committee further urges that if a canal 

 with locks should nevertheless be preferred, its 

 summit-level should in no circumstances have its 



3. — Panama Canal. 



'ith Locks. Co 



Longitudinal Secli( 



canal 30 feet above mean sea-level in a reach only 

 1 1 miles long - , and two adjoining locks at the end of 

 this reach connecting it with the summit-level (Fig. 3). 

 For thirteen miles of the summit-level on the Atlantic 

 side of the deep Culebra cutting, the canal would pass 

 through a lake formed in the Chagres valley by a 

 dam near Bohio, as shown on the plan, which would 

 materially accelerate navigation along this part. In 

 an article on " Progress of the Panama Canal," fol- 

 lowing the one by Admiral Chester, to which the plan 

 and section here reproduced are appended, it is 

 stated that this design with locks is the only one " on 

 which the Canal Commission has as yet any authority 

 to spend money." 



The canal problem entered upon a new phase this 

 year by the presentation last February of a report to 

 the United States Isthmian Canal Commission by its 

 Engineering Committee, which Admiral Chester 

 terms "the first definite engineering plans for the 



NO. 1887, VOL. 73] 



water-level more than 60 feet above mean sea-level, 

 and estimates that such a canal would cost 178,013,406 

 dollars, and a canal with only a 30-feet summit-level 

 194,213,406 dollars. The committee considered that a 

 sea-level canal, which is free from the restriction im- 

 posed by locks on the volume of traffic and size of 

 ships passing through them, and could easily be en- 

 larged and deepened to accommodate an increased 

 traffic and larger vessels, would be well worth the 

 additional cost, and that in view of the great pro- 

 gress achieved in the rate of excavation, the period 

 required for its construction would be moderate ; and 

 the opinion was expressed that though a canal with 

 locks could be made which might subsequently be 

 transformed into a sea-level canal, such a modifica- 

 tion could only be effected at great inconvenience to 

 navigation, and at an excessive cost. A scheme pro- 

 posed by Mr. Bunau-Varilla with this latter object in 

 view is described in the article on " Progress of 



