THE CAXAL ROUTE 
63 
raihvay locomotives and other machiner}^ track, barges, steam 
vessels, pontoons and locks, houses, shops, etc., for the comple- 
tion of the v'ork is on the ground, and this alone represents a 
large proportion of the money expended hy the old company. 
This plant is not undergoing the ruinous decay that has been 
represented in this country, but, on the contrary, it is kept in 
scrupulously good order and will be available for the completion 
of the work. 
The old Panama Company was responsible for nearly 
6266,000,000, of which it spent 6150,000,000 upon the plant 
and construction and criminally distributed nearly 6100,000,000 
among the dishonest parties who brought the company into dis- 
rei)Ute. In the hands of the courts, however, there still remains 
some 820,000,000 awaiting the reorganization of the company. 
That the present commission does not consider the route im- 
practicable is attested by tlie fact that they have kept the work 
progressing, al)out 2,000 laborers having been employed upon the 
construction of the canal during the past year. When, in Feb- 
ruary, 1895, 1 took the photograph reproduced as an illustration 
to this article I counted five locomotives at work cariying away 
the excavations from the Culebra summit. 
No available news comes to this country from France concern- 
ing the operations of the canal. The Outlook, however, in a recent 
issue, makes the following statement: 
“It was announced recently that the French company in charge of the 
work on the Panama canal is now collecting 2,000 more men from Jamaica 
and other West Indian islands to add to the 1,800 now at work, and that 
it is intended eventually to increase the force to 6,000 men. The New 
York Evening Poet declared that it had received information which it 
considered trustworthy that the money to finish the work on the j)resent 
plan has all been furnished, and that nothing can prevent the opening of 
the canal at the appointed time, e.vcept accidents and obstacles not now 
anticipated. The managers even expect that the work will be completed 
in six years. This is (juite in line with the report maile by Sir Henry 
Tyler, the late president of the Grand Trunk railway, who has been visit-' 
ing Panama. He .says that it is propt)sed to construct two large dams, 
one across the Upper Chagres and one on the Lower Chagres river. Two 
lakes will thus be formed, the upper one siijiplying water to the higher 
portion of the canal, while the lower one will be mainly usc<l to furnish 
water for the navigation of the lower j)art. Ten locks will be built, en- 
abling the canal to reach a height of 170 feet above the sea level. Sir 
Henry bolds that there is no insiijauable didiculty in the compUdion of 
the canal in six years, at a cost of .filOO, 000,000, by utilizing the w<wk 
already done for a distance of sixteen ndles from C<don ami four miles 
from Panama.” 
