76 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. \0L. aXIV. No. 603. 



Panama end of the canal, which would 

 have- a water level of about fifty-five feet 

 above mean tide in Panama Bay. This 

 terminal lake would extend to another earth 

 dam, or rather two earth dams in the vicin- 

 ity of the present railroad terminus at La 

 Boca and one embankment easterly of this 

 location. That portion of the dam at La 

 Boca would be built directly across the 

 mouth of the Rio Grande River, which is 

 chiefly a tidal estuary, A hill known as 

 Sosa Hill would separate the two earth 

 dams already alluded to, and in this hill 

 would be two locks in series connecting the 

 terminal lakes with tide water in Panama 

 Bay. All the locks required by this plan 

 would be built on the twin system, so that 

 one set would always be in use if the other 

 should be disabled or be out of use for 

 repairs. All ships passing across the isth- 

 mus in such a canal would have to be lifted 

 up to an elevation of 85 feet at one end of 

 the canal and dropped down the same 

 amount at the other. 



The control of the Chagres River in the 

 lock plan would be effected by the lake 

 formed by the dam at Gatun. Its volume 

 would be so large that the waters of the 

 highest floods could be received into it and 

 discharged through suitable controlling 

 gates constructed in the dam without vary- 

 ing the elevation of the lake more than two 

 or three feet at most. Also, the lake would 

 act as a reservoir for the water required to 

 feed the locks during their operation. 



There are at present being built ocean 

 steamers for the traffic between Liverpool 

 and New York about eight hundred feet 

 long. This fact coupled with the rapid 

 increase in ocean steamship dimensions dur- 

 ing the past fifteen or twenty years caused 

 the board by an almost unanimous vote to 

 record its judgment that locks proposed for 

 the isthmian canal should have a usable 

 length of not less than one thousand feet 

 and a usable width of not less than one 



hundred feet, but the minority abandoned 

 this position in their plan and recommend- 

 ed the smaller locks which have already 

 been mentioned. 



The total estimated cost of the sea-level 

 canal is about $247,000,000, including a 

 twenty-per-cent. allowance for contingen- 

 cies, administration and engineering. The 

 estimated cost of the lock plan with the re- 

 duced size of locks is about $140,000,000, 

 including the same twenty-per-cent. allow- 

 ance found in the above estimate of cost of 

 the sea-level plan. 



In the recent examination before the 

 Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals, 

 however, it was brought out that the mi- 

 nority allowance for the cost of lands sub- 

 merged by the terminal lakes of its plan 

 was entirely inadequate. It was shown 

 that on the basis of prices already paid by 

 the United States government, and by the 

 new Panama Canal Company for somewhat 

 similar lands, and in view of the claims al- 

 ready made by alleged owners, this amount 

 of land damage might reach an additional 

 sum of $15,000,000 to $18,000,000, and that 

 if the excess of annual cost of maintenance 

 and operation of the lock plan over the sea- 

 level plan be capitalized at prevailing rates 

 of government interest the real cost of the 

 lock plan might approximate not less than 

 $175,000,000 to $180,000,000. 



The question of the selection of ultimate 

 type of canal to be adopted for construction 

 has been submitted by the President to 

 Congress, and the Senate Committee on 

 Interoceanic Canals has been conducting an 

 extended examination of the entire ques- 

 tion. That committee has called for evi- 

 dence in detail from the advocates of both 

 types of canals, but its report has not yet 

 been made.^ 



The advocates of the sea-level plan con- 



- Since preparing the MSS. for this article the 

 Senate Committee has reported in favor of the sea- 

 level plan, but Congress has adopted the lock 

 canal. 



