A GATUN LAKE IGUANA, THE GIANT LIZARD OF THE SOUTH, MUCH PRIZED BY 
NATIVES FOR FOOD 
the contraction of such contagious dis- 
eases, threatening all the great ports of 
the world and resulting in a quarantine 
that might disrupt commercial intercourse 
for months. 
A CASE IN POINT 
Our experiences in this respect were 
suggestive. At no time in Gatun or other 
government towns were mosquitoes no- 
ticeable, since thickets had been cleared, 
the swamps drained or sprayed, and every 
precaution taken against the presence of 
insect life or their intrusion into dwell- 
ings. When the house-boat was anchored 
in the lagoons it was equally well pro- 
tected against mosquitoes, besides we had 
little fear of fever when not near native 
villages. 
But at the plantation on the Trocha 
were half a dozen laborers, and we were 
frequently bitten by malarial mosquitoes 
when coming through the clearing at 
dusk or when taking a refreshing bath off 
the boat after a hot day’s work. All 
three of us developed malaria on or after 
leaving the Isthmus, and as we learned 
later that the white manager of the plan- 
tation had been taken to the Gatun Hos- 
pital, a week before our arrival, suffering 
from a severe case of fever, it seems 
quite certain that we were only an addi- 
tional link in the chain of dissemination. 
ENLARGE THE LAKE ZONE 
In a communication recently received 
from a former canal commissioner, who 
was in charge at the time the Hay-Varilla 
Treaty was being negotiated, he wrote: 
“What you say of the dangers arising 
from the lack of control by the United 
States to the lands adjoining the margin 
of Lake Gatun and outside the Canal 
Zone is not exaggerated. When the width 
of the zone was fixed at 10 miles, from 
ocean to ocean, the plans did not con- 
template the construction of the dam at 
Gatun, but at Bohio, and the resulting 
lake would have been much smaller had 
that plan been carried out. The necessity 
has become greater as the area of the 
lake has become greater. . . . 
“Until we have a lesson of experience 
in one or more elements of danger, I fear 
that opposition will develop more strength 
than can be overcome. So far as the 
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