74 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 603. 



F., but such periods of extreme heat are 

 rare. 



During the greater portion of the year 

 the northeast trade winds blow steadily 

 across the Caribbean Sea, so that Colon re- 

 ceives the benefit of the resulting winds. 

 In fact, during the greater part of the 

 year strong breezes are of daily occurrence 

 in the vicinity of Colon, although these are 

 interrupted during some portions of the 

 rainy season. 



The winds are much more gentle and far 

 less in amount in Panama than on the 

 northerly side of the isthmus. There are 

 periods of gentle breezes from the north 

 and also from southerly directions, but 

 they are never high winds. The Bay of 

 Panama, on which is located the city, and 

 into which the canal will lead from the 

 north, is so free from high winds that 

 shipping at anchor in it never needs the 

 protection of breakwaters or similar struc- 

 tures. A real wind storm of high intensity 

 in that vicinity is practically unknown. 

 This condition is so strongly characteristic 

 of the Bay of Panama that many of the 

 opponents of the Panama route have 

 strongly argued against it for the reason 

 that the prolonged calms and general ab- 

 sence of winds would make it difficult for 

 sailing vessels either to approach that end 

 of the canal or to leave it after having 

 passed through the waterway. 



The harbor of Colon, completely open to 

 the north, is of a radically different char- 

 acter. AVhile it is frequently visited by 

 breezes and winds of ordinary intensity, 

 there are not, on the average, more than 

 three or four days at most in the year when 

 winds are high enough to be troublesome 

 to shipping lying there. During those 

 three or four exceptional days, how- 

 ever, wind storms of great violence, called 

 'northers,' may blow. At such times no 

 ship can safely lie at anchor in Limon Bay, 

 on which Colon is located, nor can they lie 



berthed alongside of the piers. In both 

 cases they are in grave danger of being 

 wrecked. It is the universal custom dur- 

 ing the period of 'northers' — November, 

 December and January — for every ship 

 fitted with power quickly to leave the Bay 

 of Limon and either put to sea while the 

 storm lasts or seek the small naturally pro- 

 tected harbor of Porto Bello, about eight- 

 een miles to the northeast from Colon. 

 This characteristic of the harbor of Colon 

 will make necessary the construction of 

 great breakwaters or other similar works, 

 in order to transform it into a suitable 

 terminal harbor for the Panama Canal. 



The report of the board of consulting 

 engineers discloses a radical divergence in 

 the views of its members. A majority of 

 eight of thirteen members, including the 

 five foreign members, have reported un- 

 qualifiedly in favor of a sea-level canal, 

 having a bottom width not less than 150 

 feet in ordinary section, a minimum depth 

 of water of 40 feet, and a top width in 

 ordinary section of 270 feet except for a 

 distance of seven miles in the great Culebra 

 Cut, where the canal prism would be in 

 rock with a width of 200 feet. All sides in 

 rock excavation would be vertical. Inas- 

 much as the maximum range of tide in the 

 Bay of Colon is never more than about two 

 feet no tidal lock would be required at the 

 Caribbean entrance of the canal. In the 

 Bay of Panama the maximum range of tide 

 may reach nearly twenty-one feet. The 

 board, therefore, assumed that a tidal lock 

 would be required, or at least should be 

 planned and estimated for at or near the 

 Panama end of the canal. This lock is to 

 be located near the easterly side of Sosa 

 Hill, not more than one half mile from 

 the shore of Panama Bay. It is designed 

 to have a usable length of 1,000 feet and a 

 usable width of 100 feet. 



The control of the floods of the Chagres 

 Eiver would be effected in the majority 



