NATURE'S TRANSFORMATION AT PANAMA 



161 



peccary, armadillo, and the sloth on hill- 

 tops unexpectedly converted into perma- 

 nent islands, submerging the mud-flats of 

 the herons and the ibis, driving the deer, 

 the jaguar, the tapir, iguanas, and mon- 

 ster snakes through the rising waters to 

 less hampered retreats, and opening up a 

 new and larger home for the swamp alli- 

 gator and the stream-confined fish, it 

 seemed a proper time to study and to at- 

 tempt a record of these changes. 



While necessarily representing a tran- 

 sient condition, where organic decay and 

 the dispersal of wild life was epochal 

 only in the sense of marking a definite 

 break between the past and the present, 

 yet in the very processes of transition 

 there would be much of present interest 

 and of possible future value. 



Gatun Take, at a surface elevation of 

 85 feet above the sea-level, is estimated 

 to cover 164 square miles, and extends 

 not merely over the previously existing 

 swampy ground of the Chagres Valley, 

 but it has risen so far above the floor of 

 the lowlands as to extend for miles be- 

 tween the hills, forming estuaries, la- 

 goons, and ponds, turning rapid, unnavi- 

 gable streams into deep, sluggish rivers, 

 and converting hilltops into beautiful is- 

 lands, some of them miles in length, while 

 the thousands of acres of flooded and 

 fallen timber, into which stretch or circle 

 narrow necks of land, practically defy 

 any accurate estimate of the so-called 

 shore-line of the new lake. 



SHORES UNSURVEYED 



From what we could learn through in- 

 quiry and exploration, no one knows the 

 size, shape, or location of much of the 

 partly submerged lands ; nor can satis- 

 factory surveys now be made at the wa- 

 ter-line without cutting down possibly a 

 hundred miles of dying trees and bushes. 

 Even then a 5-foot fluctuation in the 

 lake's surface, as may be expected be- 

 tween the dry and wet periods, will nec- 

 essarily vary the superficial area of the 

 lake and the lines of the shore to a con- 

 siderable degree. 



Some day, however, the warm and 

 ever-present waters will destroy the ob- 

 structing forests, and then the heretofore 

 half-shrouded lake will gdisten, near and 



far, in the tropic lights, while the sur- 

 rounding shores, each bay and promon- 

 tory, the islands big and little, will be- 

 come defined by a new and permanent 

 border of bamboo and other eemi-acquatic 

 growths. 



When, in the fall of 191 1, the locks of 

 the spillway at the Gatun dam were 

 closed, so as to begin the flooding of the 

 Chagres Valley for the first and final 

 time, the immediate use of the then shal- 

 low waters invited the coming of the 

 gasoline launch and native dug-out. In 

 the beginning this great dam, one and 

 one-half miles in length and 100 feet 

 wide at the summit, towered many feet 

 above the incipient lake, greatly reducing 

 the effect of the trade winds, while the 

 numerous islands and projecting points 

 gave additional shelter to all small boats 

 returning against the wind. 



Each week, but usually on holidays and 

 Sundays, canal employees went down the 

 lake on hunting trips, and an easy and 

 safe return could be counted on. But on 

 our arrival, early in 19 14, the lake had 

 risen to its full height ; island after 

 island and point after point had sunk out 

 of sight forever, while the steady diur- 

 nal winds of the Caribbean Sea, whirling 

 across the narrow and now low crest of 

 the embankment, brought the waves into 

 life a few yards away, ever increasing in 

 size in the long course down the lake. 



LIKE A WORK OF NATURE 



As one gazed across the broad expanse 

 of water, with its ruffled surface, it was 

 hard to realize that it was the recent 

 creation of man or responding for the 

 first time to the action of the tropic 

 winds. 



On one occasion when coming to Gatun 

 after gasoline the launch encountered a 

 heavy head sea in mid-lake and the small 

 pump was unable to keep the boat clear 

 of the breaking waves, so that it nearly 

 filled, putting the engine out of service, 

 and we drifted back several miles into a 

 dead forest in peril of being wrecked by 

 a collision with some large, tottering tree 

 or buried beneath a falling top brought 

 down by the impact. 



Like most natives of the Southern 

 Hemisphere, the Indians of Panama, 



