REPORT ON THE PANAMA CANAL 
207 
and need not be determined. But the Obispo, Cucaracha, and other 
formations of the Gaillard Cut should have their strength tested when 
saturated with water, when moist and when dry; and under rapid and 
slow deformation. If the tests show that much less force is required to 
deform the rocks when saturated or moist than when dry, this will em- 
phasize the importance of keeping the water from these rocks so far as 
possible. 
The tests should be made on fresh rocks and therefore in the Canal 
Zone. The specimens tested should be as large as is feasible for a testing 
machine of 200,000 pounds capacity. 
Earthquake Studies. — There are now two seismographs installed in the 
Administration Building at Balboa Heights. It would be an advantage 
if the smaller instrument should be removed to a second station, for 
instance Colon, in order that the origin of earthquakes, occurring in 
regions within two or three hundred miles of the Canal Zone, may be 
more definitely determined. Some of the stronger shocks felt in the Zone 
have thrown the needles of the delicate seismographs off the paper and 
left the records incomplete. A low power instrument, magnifying 
about four times would secure a record of the movements of the ground 
in these cases. 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 
It is obvious that the sliding material which enters the Canal must 
be removed. The important thing for the future is to prevent ground 
from entering the Canal. The chief remedy proposed by the Committee 
to retard the movement of the slides now in motion and to prevent the 
slides from extending their areas, is to reduce the amount of water which 
goes underground. Methods have been suggested by which this can be 
done; and they should be vigorously applied to all moving and threat- 
ening areas. 
The Committee looks to the future of the Canal with confidence. It 
is not unmindful of the labor necessary to deal with the present slides; 
and it realizes that slides may be a considerable, but not an unreasonably 
large, maintenance charge upon the Canal for a number of years; it also 
realizes that trouble in the Culebra District may possibly again close the 
Canal. Nevertheless, the Committee firmly believes that, after the 
present difficulties have been overcome, navigation through the Canal 
is not likely again to be seriously interrupted. There is absolutely no 
justification for the statement that traffic will be repeatedly interrupted 
during long periods for years to come. The Canal will serve the great 
purpose for which it was constructed, and the realization of that purpose 
in the near future is assured. 
