NATURE’S TRANSFORMATION AT PANAMA 
Remarkable Changes in Faunal and Physical Conditions in 
the Gatun Lake Region 
By GerorcGe SuHiras, 3RD 
Illustrations by the Au 
HE world-wide interest in the 
Panama Canal, from an engineer- 
ing standpoint and the great eco- 
nomic changes destined to follow the use 
of this new channel of trade and inter- 
course, has been evidenced by thousands 
of visitors and the many articles bearing 
upon the various aspects of this wonder- 
ful work. 
One of the essential features in the 
plan of construction has been somewhat 
subordinated when viewing the project 
as a whole, namely, Gatun Lake; for be- 
yond regarding it as a convenient part of 
the passageway across the Isthmus, few 
realize that it is the basis of the whole 
scheme. Not only is it the largest fresh- 
water lake ever created by man—a navi- 
gable viaduct almost bridging the two 
oceans and reached by terminal elevators 
in the form of locks—but, in addition, a 
vast reservoir for the adjoining water- 
sheds, assuring throughout the year a 
sufficient water supply for the operation 
of the locks, for electric power, for the 
establishment of inland fisheries, and for 
potable and other domestic uses, besides 
allowing greater freedom in the move- 
ment and speed of vessels and the open- 
ing up of the many lateral valleys to local 
navigation. 
A BOUNTIFUL WATER SUPPLY 
The great saving of time and money in 
thus utilizing a part of the surface of this 
reservoir, instead of excavating a narrow 
and deep canal all the way across the 
intervening land, was inconsequent, how- 
ever, compared with the original pur- 
pose—a continuously abundant supply of 
water for operating the canal locks—thus 
insuring the regular daily movement of 
vessels throughout the year. Without the 
converging watersheds of 1,400 square 
thor and H. E. Anthony 
miles, without a large natural basin for 
impounding these waters, and so located 
that a water-tight and stable dam could 
be built across the Atlantic end, only a 
sea-level canal could have been consid- 
ered—a much more costly and probably 
an impracticable scheme. 
However narrow the Isthmus, nature 
has aided as much more in a combination 
of low rolling hills, with wide valleys 
only a little above sea-level, an almost 
continuous rainfall, while the compact 
but easily excavated soil made the canal 
construction rapid, its banks water-tight, 
and the subsequent use of much of the 
excavated material a great economy in 
the building of the great earth dams. 
The original plans, under which the 
initiatory work of the French syndicate 
was begun, called for a much smaller 
lake, ignoring the advice of its most bril- 
liant engineer, M. de Lipiany, by not in- 
cluding the waters of two large rivers— 
the Gatun and the Trinidad. Judging 
from the amount of water required at 
the locks and for various other purposes, 
the de Lessep plans seem fundamentally 
defective. 
BIRTH AND GROWTH OF THE LAKE 
When the information came from Pan- 
ama that the great basin for holding the 
waters of the proposed Gatun Lake was 
finally completed by the long embankment 
at the north end, thus closing the only 
gap in the rim of hills left open by na- 
ture, and that month by month the gath- 
ering waters of tributary streams were 
slowly covering the lowlands, creeping up 
the wild tangled valleys, drowning the 
mighty forests and the rank tropical jun- 
gles, flooding out native villages and de- 
stroying scattered plantations, marooning 
wild creatures like the monkey, ocelot, 
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