SCENE ON THE RIO CHILIBRITI,0, UP WHICH TRIPS WERE MADE TO VISIT THE BAT 
CAVES 
As palms never grow in water, something of the extent of the flooding of this region can 
be judged 
on the watersheds is important, in order 
to properly safeguard any part of the 
lake basin subject to overflow or unusual 
pressure. Some miles up one of the val- 
ley estuaries is a ridge called “the Cana 
Saddle,” forming a natural embankment 
between the impounded waters and the 
Caribbean Sea. So low is this rim, when 
the lake reaches the prescribed maximum 
of 87 feet, that a prolonged freshet might 
overflow the bank or a heavy, continuous 
pressure start a leakage, with the result, 
in either case, of the rushing waters cut- 
ting down or bursting through the em- 
bankment, reducing the lake level below 
the minimum required for navigation. 
Were this break to occur just before 
the dry season, it might easily interrupt 
commerce for months, since the required 
depth could not be restored until well 
into the wet season. One or two other 
localities, also outside the zone, present 
183 
somewhat similar features. Such an in- 
terruption would be a universal calamity 
in times of peace and probably more 
serious for us in times of war. 
IS THE CANAL IMPREGNABLE? 
Military Reasons.—Our refusal to ac- 
cept the proposal of European nations 
for an unfortified or neutralized canal, 
followed by erecting the heaviest possi- 
ble armament on the seaboard, becomes 
ludicrous if the operation of the canal 
can be suspended for months by the use 
of a stick of dynamite on a northern arm 
of the lake or through the destruction of 
the Pedro Miguel locks at the south by 
projectiles fired from the slopes of the 
Chagres River, since such easily con- 
cealed assaults would originate beyond 
our interior borders. 
To protect the entrances of the canal 
by fortifications and war vessels, while 
