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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Panama far outweigh all hazards in the 

 proposed lock canal, provided the latter 

 is built so as to minimize the chance of 

 accident at the locks. This is met by 

 providing every possible safety device, 

 by building the locks in duplicate, and 

 by the installation of a system by which 

 the vessels will be controlled by powerful 

 electric machinery on the lock walls, thus 

 avoiding mistakes on the part of the ves- 

 sel's crew or engine-room staff, which 

 once led to an accident at the Manchester 

 Ship Canal. 



Again, it is objected that the size of 

 the locks limits the canal to vessels which 

 can use them. This is true. The present 

 lock designs provide intermediate gates 

 dividing the locks into lengths of 600 and 

 400 feet. About 98 per cent of all the 

 ships, including the largest battleships 

 now building, can be passed through the 

 600-foot lengths, and the total lock length 

 will accommodate the largest commer- 

 cial vessels now building, which I believe 

 are 1,000 feet long and 88-foot beam. 



It is true that ships may increase in 

 size so as to make the present locks ob- 

 solete, but the largest ships now afloat 

 can not navigate the present Suez Canal 

 nor the proposed sea-level canal at 

 Panama. It must also be remembered 

 that the commerce of the world is car- 

 ried by the medium-sized vessels, the 

 length of only one of the many ships 

 using the Suez Canal being greater than 

 600 feet. 



The General Board of the Navy is on 

 record that 110-foot width will be ample 

 for the future needs of the Navy, and 

 naval construction of the future will be 

 limited not alone by the locks of the 

 Panama Canal, but also by the available 

 dry docks. Ships that can not use locks 

 1,000 feet by no feet can not use a 150- 

 foot sea-level canal, nor can this be so 

 easily and economically increased and 

 maintained as is made to appear by its 

 advocates. 



Increasing the width of Culebra cut, 

 as recently ordered, from 200 to 300 feet 

 is advanced as an argument to show that 

 the locks are too narrow. Ships do not 

 navigate the locks in the sense that they 



do the canal prism, and the wider the 

 channel the easier will be navigation. On 

 account of slides that developed in Cule- 

 bra cut considerably more additional 

 work was made necessary in the upper 

 reaches of the divide than was contem- 

 plated, and the advantages of the in- 

 creased width to navigation were so 

 great, compared with the relative amount 

 of material to be removed in order to 

 secure it, that the President ordered it. 

 By this action the width of the locks is 

 in nowise called into question. 



THE: GATUN LAKE WILL NOT LEAK 

 THROUGH THE) HILLS 



The water supply for lockages was so 

 exhaustively treated by the minority of 

 the board that it has not been called 

 into question by any one who has care- 

 fully considered the report and data sub- 

 mitted therewith. Recently, however, 

 the theory has been advanced that the 

 water of the lake may seep through the 

 adjacent hills or through the bottom, 

 and is significantly referred to as a 

 mooted question. This possibility is em- 

 phasized by the seamy quality of the 

 rock when exposed. The French plans, 

 with Bohio Lake, were the result of 

 careful and protracted study and investi- 

 gation, and nothing of the kind was an- 

 ticipated. The commission of 1901 was 

 not in doubt of the resisting power of 

 the hill covering such a flow. The re- 

 port of the geologist on the general for- 

 mation of the country does not lead to 

 any such dread or fear. The reservoirs, 

 constructed in the hills of the same geo- 

 logical formation as the entire lake area, 

 are not affected by any such leakage or 

 seepage. At Black Swamp, an extensive 

 area between Bohio and Gatun, the water 

 stands above the level of the Chagres — ; 

 which is within half a mile — and also 

 above sea-level the level of the water 

 remains unchanged, clearly indicating no 

 such leakage. 



Toward the close of the last dry season 

 certain measurements of the Chagres at 

 Bohio indicated a less discharge there 

 than at Gamboa ; this was subsequently 

 exploded by other observations which 



