The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-12-21
THE GREATPANAMAC CANAL
A TALK WITH DELEssEPS ABOUT
HIS "BIG DITCH"
The Progress That pEas pBcen Ma.
in ITS Construction -'Thr EO~.'
AT WOrk-EO be Einishrtl in I's--

in ITS Construction Fer
AT WorIx-rO he Finish I'd in I's-
NJ. de Lesseps, protector of the Pana-
ma canal, has given Paris correspond
ent OF the Philadelphia Times some in
teresting information concerning the
| progress made thus far in the great UNI
dertaNng. Said the French engineer:
| The work on the isthmus is greatly aided
| by the existence of the Colon Aspinwall
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 pl ace our workshops in
direct rommunication with the railway,
a fac ;ch greatly facilitates all our
heavy nauling. The establishment of
our workshops and section headquarters
has, as a general thing, been done at
first in a somewhat rudmcntary manner
The personele had to content themselves
with living in ranches, or rather in very
primitive huts matched with palm
leaves. Now, we have everywhere frame
houses, which were sent out from the
United States, and gardens have been
planted around them in which vegetables
are cultivated.
The means of excavation adopted are
as varied as the nature of the soil through
which the line of the canal passes. In
those portions where we have Garth or
sand to deal with we use excavatinp
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 all from
Jamaica. In France 800 to 5000 cubic
meters of grading is considered a GOOD
days work: in Panama we are going on
at the rate of from 200 to 1. 800 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 miles in depth through the
mountain, and the construction of dam
to contain the waters of the Chagres river,
and which will form a reservoir cana
bic of holding 1000, 600, 600 cubic
meters of water. This will be
the largest dam or reservoir that has ever
been constructed. In making the sur
veys through the mountains we found the
American drills very much superior to the
French ones. The latter pulverized the
rock and it was very hard to form an ac-
curate estimate as to its hardness. The
American diamond drills leave a core
which is piece of the rock itself. These
surveys have demonstrated that the noun
tains are formed of horizontal LAYERS of
semi rock and are free from subter-
ranean streams Of water. The cut will
therefore, not prove very difficult mat
&c =, Ior
to require 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 val
ley of the Chagres and crosses that river
several times. In winter, the rainy season
on the isthmus, the outflow from the
mouth of the riveris something like 600
cubic meters second, which makes it at
that time river of about the same size
as the Seine. In summer, however.
1t 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,
and 1t will be turned into a smaller
canal, dug for the purpose; the object
of the dam is to regulate its flow SO
that it will never exceed four hundred
cubic meters second and thus the mari
time canal be saved from all risk of a
flood caused by IA sudden rise of the
river. This dam is, in its way. quite
as great a work as the canal itself, and
1t will absorb 7,000,0 600 cubic meters of
material, which in France would cost
three to four francs a cubic meter, but
which costs us nothing but the trans
portatlon at Panama, as they are fur
nished by the cuttings of the canal.
There will be very little work needed
at either end of the canal in order to
prepare entrances from the sea. At
Colon Aspinwall it will be necessary to
construct two jetties at the Panama
end the canal opens into perfectly
safe natural roadstead"
" Have you large force at work on
the isthmusW the correspondent asked.
- At first we had some fears of not be-
ing able to secure enough aborers. and
expected to make up FOR this deficiency
by machinery. But we have found no
difficulty in recruiting laborers. Our
agents visited the Antilles. and found the
negroes of those islands glad to accept
the terms offered. They now earn from
$1.25 to $3.50 day. Last month there
were 200 OF these workmen employed
ON the canal. This month the number
will be increased to ~, 600, and very soon
we will have IA, 900 persons employed on
the isthmus. The existing contracts for
the work require the contractors to be in
position by the commencement of the
year to eXcavate one million cubic meters
a month, and there are some sections Of
the line which are not under contract.
confidently expect the canal to be opened
to trade in 1855"