Progress of the Panama Canal 



469 



"has, in some capacity, been associated 

 with it from 5 to 25 years and knows 

 the tremendous difficulties to be over- 

 come. Their decision will be submitted 

 to the Isthmian Canal Commission which 

 may accept it or not as they deem best. 

 The Isthmian Canal Commission recom- 

 mend to Congress, which alone has the 

 power to determine the plan. 



MR BUNAU-VARILLA'S SCHEME 



Next to the sea-level canal, the most 

 interesting project is that proposed by 

 Mr Bunau-Varilla. Mr Varilla asserts 

 that it will take the United States many 

 years to construct a sea-level canal, 

 owing to the great difficulty we shall 

 have in securing sufficient laborers. He 

 advocates a plan of his own invention, 

 which he says can be completed in four 

 and one-half years. The canal would, 

 be large enough to handle double the 

 amount of traffic which statisticians 

 have calculated will use the canal dur- 

 ing the next generation, and can grad- 

 ually be converted into a sea -level canal 

 without interruption of traffic. Mr 

 Bunau- Varilla's preliminary canal is not 

 unlike that recommended by the first 

 Isthmian Commission, and shown on 

 our supplement. The most interesting 

 feature of the scheme is a dam at Bohio, 

 built entirely of mud and without any 

 artificial core, and of nearly twenty-five 

 times the width of the dam proposed by 

 the Isthmian Commission. The dam 

 would be formed of sandy clay, which 

 is to be sucked up by dredges from the 

 Chagres Valley, and then forced through 

 pipes and deposited in the required po- 

 sition and allowed gradually to harden. 

 The mud, Mr Varilla says, would harden 

 in the manner of cement, and in this 

 way the dam could be constructed at 

 very small expense. 



The amount of water that would filter 

 through the ground below the dam 

 would be insignificant. The dam would 

 form a lake, similar in position to the 

 lake shown on the map and extending 



to the vicinity of Gamboa. At Gamboa 

 another dam built of concrete and steel 

 and strengthened by embankments of 

 earth would form a second lake outside 

 the canal line. Mr Bunau-Varilla pro- 

 poses two locks at Bohio, ascending to 

 Lake Bohio, and two more locks near 

 Obispo for the ascent to the summit level , 

 which extends from Obispo through 

 Culebra Cut. As the summit level 

 is 130 feet above the sea, the amount 

 of excavation in the Culebra Hill is 

 comparatively small. There are four 

 locks on the Pacific end, making eight 

 in all for the canal. 



A CONVERTIBLE CANAL 



This serviceable lock canal, which is 

 to be put into commission four and one- 

 half years from the day of commence- 

 ment, Mr Bunau-Varilla proposes to 

 lower to sea level entirely by dredging. 

 Lake Gamboa is to furnish the electric 

 power to drive the dredges, while into 

 it is to be dumped all the excavated 

 rock and mud. The flow of excavated 

 rock and ground into Lake Gamboa will 

 go on, says the designer, at the rate of 

 4,000 cubic yards an hour, or 90,000 

 cubic yards a day, with a very ample 

 margin of safety for accidents. Lake 

 Gamboa, owing to its enormous dimen- 

 sions, may absorb many times the total 

 cube to be excavated from the canal. 



A LABOR-SAVING DEVICE 



The following paragraphs are quoted 

 from Mr Bunau-Varilla : 



" In all countries of the world dredg- 

 ing is incomparably superior to dry 

 excavation when the ground necessi- 

 tates no mining. On the Isthmus of 

 Panama this advantage is transformed 

 into an enormous superiority. If there 

 is an instrument of work which coun- 

 terbalances as much as it is physically 

 possible all the evil influences of the 

 Isthmus, it is the dredge. It counter- 

 balances them because, first, it is the 

 only excavating instrument where the 



