The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-12-26
THE PANAMA CANAL.
How This Gigantic Work is Being Done.

The members of the press were invited Mt
Paris the other evening to assist at the in
auguration of a panorama of the Isthmus of
Panama, that has just been installed in the
general meeting room of the Panama Canal
Company. 1t is not exactly G panorama in
the sense that that word is used nowadays,
but rather an immense bird's-eye view of
the Isthmus, painted by two of the most
skillful Of the Partisan scene painters on
one Of the walls of the room. During the
course of the evening took occasion to ask
NJ. de Lesseps for some details concerning
the progress of the work and the following
is what he told me
9 The work on the Isthmus IS greatly
aided by the existence of the Golon-Aspin-
wall Railway. The line Of the canal and
that Of the railway are parallel and SO near
each other that few yards of rail is all
that is needed to place our workshops in
direct communication with the railway, a
fact which greatly facilitates all our heavy
hauling. The establishments of our work.
shops and section headquarters has. as q
general thing, been done ut first in a some
what rudimentary manner The personelle
had to content themselves with living in
ranchos, or, rather, in very primitive huts
matched with palm leaves, Now we have
everywhere frame houses, which were sent
out from the United States, aud gardens
have been planted around them in which
vegetables are cultivated.
g The means of excavation adopted are
rs varied as the nature of the soil through
which tho line of the canal passes. In those
portions where we have earth or sand TO deal
with we use excavatine machines, and we have
found the French machines, better adapted
to the work than those made in America.
When rock is encountered the work is done
by negroes who are paid by the wagon
load. These negroes are nearly oil from
Jamaica, and we have found them very
much superior to the reputation rhat their
race has for industry. When paid by the
day 1t was hard to get any work out Of
them, but since we pay them by the piece
the desire for gain oveScomes their indo-
lence. In France 800 to / 900 cubic metres
Of grading is considered good days work,
in Panama we are going ON at the rate of
from 200 to 1 300 cubic metres day.
The construction Of the canal presents
two principal difficulties, or, rather there
are two pieces of work involved that are Of
an exceptional character. These are q cut
of 100 metres in depth through the noun
tains and the construction of dam to con-
tain the waters of the Chagres river and
which will form reservoir capable of hold
ing 1000, 100000 cubic metres Of water.
This will be the largest dam or reservoir
that has ever been constructed. In making
thc surveys through the mountains we
found the American drills very much
/ superior to the French ones. The latter
! pulvcrized the rock and ii W very hard to
form an accurate estimate as 10 its hardness.
The American diamond drills leave core
which is piece of the rock itself. These
surveys have demonstrated that the NOUN
tains are formed of horizontal layers of
semi-hard rock and are free from subter-
ranean streams of water. The cut will
therefore not prove very difficult matter,
and as the rock is hard enough not to re.
quire the support Of walls to protect the
canal it will not be necessary to make the
cut any wider than the canal itself.
The line of the canal follows the Valley
4 of the Chagres and crosses that river several
times. In winter, the rainy season on the
isthmus, the outflow from the mouth of the
river is something like |, 600 cubic metres a
second which makes it at that time river
of about the same size as the Seine. IN
summer, however, il contains very much,
less water. We have determined not to
turn the water of this river into the canal,
for fear of the damage its current might do,
/ ard il will be turned into q smaller canal,
dug for the purpose the object of the dam
/ Is to regulate its flow so that it will never
exceed 400 cubic metres second and thus
the maritime canal be saved from all risk OF
I flood caused by the sudden rise of the
river. This dam is, in Its way, quite az
great a work rs the canal itself and it will
absorb 1000, 900 cubic metres of material,
which in France would cost from to
francs q cubic metre, but which costs MS
nothing but the transportation at Panama,
as they are furnished by the cuttings of the
canal. There will be very little work need
ed at either end of the canal IN order to
prepare entrances from the sen. At Colon
Aspinwall it will be necessary to con-
struct two jetties at the Panama end the
canal opens into perfectly safe natural
roadstead. ~ Correspondence Philadelphia
Times.
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