Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-11-21
Lrssep>' Talk About Panama.

! The members oflhe press were invited III
, other evening To assist nj the inan9uratio,
| 0f II nanaramt of the ishmus of Panama
. that has usi been ins,nlled in the genera
meeting 70, IN OF the Z mama canal com
. Dlny 1t is not exactly panorama in ,hr
+ s"rS that that world il used nowadays
hut aher al immense birds-eya view
= he iElhmns, pinned by Two nf the mos
sIltlfil Of the Partisan scene printers q,
nn" a the walls of the room Daring III,
g Ia So of tho evening took occasion I,
ask NJ de l. ssel 8 for some details con
c"rnng he progress of the work and lh,
toiin"ing is what he Told me:-
The ork ON the is'hmus is great'
aided by the existence of The Colon. A, pin
wall railway. The line Of the canal an,
hat Of the railway are parallel AMI
! near each other that n few yards of rail j.
, MI that is needed to place our workshops
in direct communication with the railway
I fact which greatly facilitates nll on
heavy hauling. The establishment of OH
wol kshops and section head quarters has
rs g neal lhng, been done ut first in =
soin"w ha, I'll linentary manner. Th
pei SonrlIe had to content lhem-eves wi
llvlug in raDcllos, or rather in very primi
we have everywhere frame houses, which
were sent ont from the United Statcs, ano
gardens have been planted aronnd them
in which VI getables are cultivated.
"The means of excavation adopted are
as varied as the nature of The soil through
which he line of the canal passes In
those portions where we have earth or
sand To deal with we use excavating
tnn ob bipoa nd uo hay f,ppI d bn E,a ,,b
machines better adapted to the work than
those MADE in America. When rock is
encountered the work is done by negroes,
no are paid By the wagon load. These
negroes are nearly all from Jamaica, and
we have found them very much superior
to the reputation that their race hls for
industry. When paid by the day it was
hard to get any work out of them. but
since we pay them by the piece the desire
for gain overcomes their Incidence In
France 800 to 1000 cubic meters of grad
ing is considered Il good days WORK; in
Panama we are going on at the rate Of
from 1900 to 1900 cubic meters 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 !
cut of 1870 meters in depth through the |
mountains and the construction OF II dam
TO contain the waters of the Chagres river
and which will form reservoir capable of
holding 100000, 600 cubic meters Of
water This will be the largest dam or
reservoir that has ever been constructed. |
! In making lhe surveys through lhe noun
tains we found the American drllls very
much superior to the French oEcs. The
| later puiver 2 d the rock and it was very |
hare To toim N an accurate estimate rs TO lis
hardness. The American diamond dllls
| leave IL core which is IL pi, ce of the rock !
itself. The Sc surveys have demonstrate d !,
that tho Mountai;s ale formed of hon lion
tai iavers of semi hard rock and are free
ir IN subtrrranetn streams OF water. The !
cut viii Therefore not prove Il very d Iii ,ult |
uatfer and as HE rock is hard enougn |
not to T. qlre he support of walls TO pro-
tie, the canal. it will not be necessary to |
make The cuL any wider Than The canal |
uself
"Ihe line Of the canal follows the valley |
Of Inc Chanles and crosses thtt river
st veiaI tunes. In WIN er, the rainy season
on the ISL mus, the GU flow lum ihe
mouth OF The river IS something like 1000
rub,c me ers IA second, watch makes II at
II Al time Il river at ab lut the ) tine slz3 IT'S
he Seine In summer, however. il con
airs veiv much less wafer. We have
determined not TO turn tho water of tnis
rIvrr into The canal, for fear of the damrge
It's curr-n might do, nnd II wall | c lurned
INTO II smaller canal, dug Tor the purpo g:
the oi cL Of he dam is 10 Itgula it, fl w
50 that it will never exceed 4u0 cubic
meIe : IL second and thus he maritime
nal hr saved from AL risk d fl II d
c,useJ bv the sudden Use OF the river.
lbs daln il, in is way, quite as great II
work rs The canal iIstI; AMI 1t will abs III
Z 600 600 cub" met,ls Of material, whh h
n Fame would cost ir, m three to four
francs cubic meter, but which costs US
nothing but The transportation at PAnama,
as theN are furnished by the cuttings OF
The canal There will be very lllt!e wol
needed At either end of ,he canal IN order
10 prepare enhances from the sea. Al
Co ou- A pin wall it will be necessary 10
construed two jrttles; ut the panama end
the canal opens into II perfectly safe natu
raj rOadstead
"llave YOU Il large force at work on the
isihmu,P' asked.
At trst we had some fears of not being
able 10 secure enough lahorers and ex
pee ed 10 make up for this deficiency by
machinery. But we have found no diff
Guilty IN recruiting labortrs Our agents
visited the Antilles and found the negr oes
Of those islands glad to accept The terms
offered. They now earn from 81 % to
81 so day. Last month there were H.
UU0 of these wOrkmen on the canal. This
month the number will! be increased to {
y 600 and very soon we will have II, 900
persons employed on the islhmus. The
existing contracts for the work require the
contractors to be in II position by me com
mencement al the year to excavae one
million cubic meters month and there
are some sections of the line which are
not under contract. | confidently expert
, he canal to be open to trade in 1888 -
Paris Correspondence, Philadelphia Times.