A Trip to Panama and Darien. 313 



show the relative amount of completed and uncompleted area 

 along the axis of the canal. To complete the summit cut it is 

 still necessary to excavate lil feet, 93 feet having already been 

 excavated, through a horizontal distance of 3300 feet. The width 

 of cut at top surface for the required depth at a slope of \\ to 1 

 woixld be 750 feet, but as I said before, at this slope landslides 

 were of fi-equent occurrence and the slope would probably have 

 to be increased to at least 2 to 1. 



Granting the necessary excavations made, there would be still 

 the problem of the control of the Chagres river and the water 

 supply for the summit level to provide for. At first it was 

 thought that the water supply could be obtained from the storage 

 of the waters of the Chagres and Obispo, but this idea was event- 

 ually abandoned, either from a belief in the insufficiency of the 

 water supply during the dry season, or from diificulties in the 

 way of conveying the water to the summit level. 



Then it was that the advice of Mr. Eiffel, a noted French engi- 

 neer, was sought, and after a visit to the Isthmus he proposed 

 that the summit level should be supplied by pumping from the 

 Pacific. A contract was immediately made with Eiffel, who was 

 heralded all over the world as the man who would save the canal, 

 and immediately a positive day, the seventh that had been an- 

 nounced, was fixed for the opening of the great canal. 



I do not know just how much work was done towards perfecting 

 the system for pumping, but probably very little was ever accom- 

 plished in this direction, as soon after this scheme was thought of 

 the available funds of the canal company began to be very scarce, 

 and there has been since then a general collapse of work all along 

 the line until now it is entirely suspended. From what I 

 have said and from what can be seen from the profile, it will be 

 readily understood that as far as the sea-level project is concerned 

 the amount done is not much more than a scraping of the surface, 

 relatively speaking, and that what has been done is in places 

 where the obstacles were fewest. 



In regard to the lock, canal about one third of the necessary 

 excavation has been made along the axis of the canal, but taking 

 into consideration other requirements necessary for the comple- 

 tion of the scheme, I should estimate, roughly, that probably only 

 one sixth of the whole amount of work had been accomplished. 

 The question now naturally arises as to what will be the probable 

 future of this great enterprise. 



