THE PANAMA CANAL 



163 



about ten vessels of various sorts in one 

 lock chamber, and even then it was not 

 full. Attention is especially called to one 

 piece of plant in the fleet, and that is the 

 old French dredge, a ladder dredge dis- 

 tinguished by the endless chain with 

 buckets. This old French dredge has 

 served loyally two administrations and is 

 still in the advance guard going to attack 

 Cucaracha slide. By a peculiar coinci- 

 dence, M. Bunau Varilla, the former 

 chief engineer of the French Canal Com- 

 pany, passed through the locks during 

 this event aboard one of the boats in the 

 fleet. He, as you know, was a great ad- 

 vocate of a sea-level canal. 



More precautions have been taken 

 probably in the Panama Canal locks than 

 in any other locks in the world. In ad- 

 dition to having duplicate gates at each 

 end of the lock, a great chain is attached 

 to a system of hydraulic cylinders and 

 kept in the position shown until a boat 

 makes a landing alongside the guide wall 

 and a towing locomotive takes charge of 

 it. Then the chain is lowered into a 

 groove in the bottom of the canal. This 

 fender chain across the entrance is shown 

 in the picture on page 168. 



THE FLOATING ISLANDS OF GATUN LAKE 



A large part of the bed of what is now 

 Gatun Lake was formerly swamp land. 

 In that swamp were logs on which grass 

 and small trees had grown. When the 

 lake rose, the entire bottom floated. The 

 wind broke it into pieces, sometimes an 

 acre or more in extent, and since that 

 time these pieces have been floating aim- 

 lessly about the lake (see page 172). 



During the fall of 191 2 the water was 

 allowed to flow 6 or 7 feet deep over the 

 uncompleted spillway, and a large num- 

 ber of these floating islands were passed 

 over it. As soon as the lake reaches nor- 

 mal height and water can be spared, these 

 floating islands will be towed systematic- 

 ally to the spillway and passed over and 

 out to the Atlantic. 



As the waters of the Chagres River 

 came down and encountered the dam at 

 Gatun the lake was gradually formed, 

 and during this process much vegetation 

 was submerged. As the lake rose it gave 

 the ladies of Panama great opportunities 

 for collecting orchids. 



The most beautiful orchids have a way 

 of growing on the largest trees, and so 

 high that they are difficult to get ; but 

 while the lake was rising to 85 feet above 

 sea-level, one could row around in small 

 boats through the trees and pick them 

 oft" (see pages 174 and 175). A Kipling 

 should have been at Panama to write a 

 jungle story that would describe the ac- 

 tion of the wild animals when this great 

 permanent flood of the Chagres came. 



The last natural barrier that held back 

 the water of Gatun Lake from the cut 

 that had been made across the Conti- 

 nental Divide was the dike at Gamboa. 

 Up to this point the canal has followed 

 the Chagres Valley. It now leaves the 

 valley and cuts across the Continental 

 Divide to Pedro Miguel, and there com- 

 mences to go down the Pacific slope. 



The Gamboa dike was broken down on 

 October 10, 1913, by the explosion of a 

 charge of dynamite which had been 

 stored in it. This charge was fired by 

 the depression of a telegraph key in the 

 White House at Washington by Presi- 

 dent Wilson (see page 176). Before the 

 dike was blown up, water was allowed to 

 enter the Culebra Cut through pipes, so 

 as to fill it to within 5 or 6 feet of the 

 level of the lake. Had it been blown up 

 with 30 feet difference in level, some 

 damage might have resulted. 



THE CULEBRA CUT AND THE SLIDES 



The Culebra Cut will, it is thought, be 

 the most striking of all the features of 

 the canal. The Gatun Lake, when all the 

 trees are gone, will be beautiful with its 

 green islands and green promontories ; 

 but the most striking feature, I think, 

 will always be the great cut across the 

 Continental Divide. 



The most difficult slides to handle have 

 occurred in that part of the canal near 

 the Continental Divide, marked by Gold 

 Hill and Contractor's Hill, all comprised 

 in a length of about \]/ 2 miles of canal. 

 Just beyond Gold Hill is the famous 

 Cucaracha slide (see pages 147 and tsO. 

 the surface of which was above the lake 

 level when the water entered Culebra 

 Cut, and it prevented the water from 

 flowing through the cut to Pedro Miguel. 



An unsuccessful attempt was made on 

 the same day that the dike at Gamboa 



