204 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
posal all the time, but as a rule he rides 
on the regular trains, in the ordinary 
day coaches, and goes about among the 
men on the work, keeping in touch with 
them at all times. 
HUMORS OF CANAL BUIIvDING 
Not everything is grim and deter- 
mined work at Panama. A little fun 
now and then crops out, mostly im- 
ported from the States, and being 
brought by Congressional delegations 
who visit i'z canal. A year or two ago 
a Western Senator was in one of these 
delegations, and at a hearing on the 
Gatun Dam he inquired : "Colonel, how 
is it that so small a body of earth as the 
Gatun Dam can hold in check such a 
tremendous body of water as the Gatun 
Lake ?" 
Colonel Goethals replied that it was 
explained by that well-known principle 
of hydrostatics under which the pressure 
of a body of water is determined entirely 
by its height and not by its volume. 
Still the Senator could not see it. 
Then Senator Knox, now Secretary 
of State, addressed the Western Sen- 
ator, saying, "Senator, if your theory 
were true, how could the dikes of Hol- 
land hold in check the Atlantic Ocean?" 
Thereupon the Western Senator saw 
the point and joined in the laugh at his 
own expense. 
Another distinguished visitor, travel- 
ing on a train which had just backed off 
of the Panama railroad on to the relo- 
cated line, wanted to know of the Chief 
Engineer if the relocated line were the 
same gauge as the other. 
A young man in the diplomatic serv- 
ice of the United States, after having 
witnessed the putting of a model of the 
Olympic through a model of the Pedro 
Miguel lock, asked Designing Engineer 
Cornish how it was that they got the 
water into the locks without pumping 
it in. 
There is a perennial circus on the 
Isthmus in the shape of the 30,000 
West Indian negroes who are helping 
dig the canal. I have the word of the 
Chief Engineer that one of them has 
frequently been seen to go to the post- 
office, get a letter, place it on his head, 
put a stone upon the letter, and walk 
away. Upon one occasion three Marti- 
nique negroes were set to removing ma- 
terial with a wheelbarrow. They loaded 
it, and then one stooped down, the other 
two lifted it to his head, and he walked 
away with the load. 
When one reflects that the 30,000 or 
more negroes and Spaniards who make 
up the common labor on the canal were 
all untrained and undisciplined, and that 
the force of negroes charges almost every 
year, it becomes all the more remarkable 
that such great feats of engineering per- 
formance should be possible at Panama. 
se;a-leve;l canal impossible 
As one who originally believed that a 
sea-level canal should be built, I freely 
acknowledge my belief today that if we 
had undertaken such a waterway, we 
would have retired defeated and disap- 
pointed, as did the French. The work 
on the present project has absolutely 
vindicated the judgment of those who 
opposed a sea-level canal. In the first 
place, the width of the waterway per- 
force would have been so narrow that 
it could readily have been blocked by 
some future Hobson with a Merrimac. 
In the second place, only God knows 
how much material would have had to 
be taken out of Culebra Mountain before 
its sides would have stopped slipping 
into the cut. In the third place, there 
would have had to be tidal locks, which 
would have been in more danger of 
being put out of commission than the 
present ones. In the fourth place, there 
would have had to be a higher dam at 
Gamboa than there is at Gatun, and a 
fairer mark it would have been for the 
aeroplane. No one ever leaves the Isth- 
mus now without registering a vow of 
thankfulness for the wise course that 
was pursued in making it a lock canal. 
It is so obvious that the veriest layman 
can see it. 
FORTIFICATIONS 
With the two great forts at the two 
ends of the canal fitted out \yith four 
14-inch guns, six 6-inch guns, and 
twelve 12-inch mortars, with twelve com- 
panies of coast artillery, one battery of 
field artillery, four regiments of infantry, 
and one squad of cavalry, there is not 
