A Trip to'^the'lPanama Canal. 25 



United States Government made every effort to exterminate the 

 mosquito, the source of transmission, and the result was that while 

 the average force of the French company between 1881 and 1889 

 had been 10,200 men and the loss during that period 22,189, the 

 Americans since 1904 had employed an average force of 33,000 

 men and lost less than 4,000. The United States Government 

 acquired the rights and property of the French company for a 

 sum of forty million dollars, and they gave one man — Colonel 

 Goethals — absolute power in connection with the execution of 

 the undertaking. When the Americans took possession of the 

 canal in 1904 the terrible mortality from yellow fever and malaria 

 was still fresh in everybody's mind, and this had a most deterrent 

 effect on the labourers whom they sought to attract to the 

 Isthmus. Before sufficient labour could be obtained wages 

 ranging from one and a quarter to twice those ruling in the 

 United States had to be granted, and other inducements had to 

 be held out. There were some 36,000 men employed on the 

 Isthmus, these being, roughly, divided as follows : — On Canal 

 construction, 28,300 ; an the Panama railroad, 4,200 ; on relocat- 

 ing the Panama railroad, 2,400 ; and in commissary department, 

 1,100. About 5,600 of the men were Americans, and of the 

 remainder five-sixths were West Indians and one-sixth Europeans, 

 mostly Spaniards and Itahans. The lecturer next dealt with the 

 steps taken to secure the proper sanitation of the Canal zone, and 

 alluded to the plans pursued in the construction of the Canal. 

 The outstanding feature of all the work, he said, was its enormous 

 magnitude, and the mere mention of figures could not convey to 

 the mind the same impression as was gained by spending some 

 time on the ground and seeing what was represented by such 

 figures. As indicating the extent of the undertaking, Mr, Barbour 

 said the Culebra cut was now approaching completion, and it 

 would have been much further forward had it not been for the 

 immense landslides which had taken place. In the nine miles 

 of cutting there were now going out trains on the average of one 



