The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-30

o Culbera. its deepest point, distance
OF nine miles, about one-fourrh it,
depth has been excayated, commencinS
with sea level on the Atlantic sioe, fol-
the first ten miles the land along the
Canal gradually reaches an eleva-
tien of twenty feet. The next seven
miles it attains an average elevation OF
forty feet, except where, for a short
| distance, it encounters a hill 200 feet
high. The elevation to be overcome
during the next seven miles is between
fifty and 200 feet; and then for three
miles the great ditch has to pass
through hill 120 feet above tide water
Then it encounters series of hills; and
at Culebra. the highest point on the
line, the elevation for several hundred
yards is over 300 feet. From this point
the land falls away toward the Pacific
so rapidly that only three miles from
Culebra the elevation is only thirty
feet.
A VAST AMOUNT OF CAPITAL
has been squandered at Culebra in tear
ing down mountain of quicksand
eleven miles long, to depth of 367 feet
But the great vordilIera dividing tht
oceans, whose rocky masses must bt
penetrated, presented less formidable
obstacle than the Chagres river, whose
flow it is impos sible to control. Sci
ence and labor, backed by capital, may
sooner or later overcome most terres-
trial obstacles; but when the windows
of heaven are suddenly flung wide open
as often on the isthmus, the puny
works of man are speedily obliterated
| AS In Noah's time, when the rains de
scend and the floods come, the costly
works of century may be destroyed
in an hours time.
No stream in the world is more power.
full for mischief tn an this river Chagres
which, with its tributaries, drains vast
area of the mountain range. Ore in
the north can have no idea of the
sudden fall of rain in these regions, and
the tremendous volume of the down
pour, sometimes causing the river to
rise eighty feet in half a day, its tide
rolling with frightful velocity, breaking
over banks and flooding the low lands.
The Nile never rises more than forty
feet even in Upper Egypt where its
flood is greatest.
ALL ALONG ITS COURSE
a maximum of twenty-four feet is con-
sidered "agood Nile" bringing surpris-
ing fecundity to the land it waters
while rise of more than twenty-eight
feet becomes destructive and danger
Gus.
In making the Panama canal, the all
important question of labor supply has
presented many elements of uncer-
tainty. The native races OF the tropics
(here mostly of African origin), seem
to be the only human beings who can
endure hard work under the burning
Isthmian sun, but even this supply is
limited, for the entire population of the
small State of Panama-blacks, whites
and all, including the company's i'm
portations-is less than $50 600. For
the most part, workmen have been i'm
ported. as many as 10000 having bee n
employed at once, the majority brought
from Jamaica, Cartagena and the lower
valley of the Mississippi.
Yet
THE MAIN RELIANCE
must be placed on machinery, and
realizing this the company imported a
great many costly excavators. dredges
and locomotives, each excavator
Weighing several tons, and representing
from seventy horsepower to 100.
All the works for the construction of
dredges, n machinery, etc., were erected
at the mouth of the Rio Grande, where
those employed were constantly ex-
posed to the pestilential eXhalations OF
the mangrove swamps through which
that stream finds its way to the sea.
Finally dam was bnilt across the Rio
Grande in order to overflow the
marshes, with the idea Of improving the
sanitary conditions of the place, but it
did not seem to make much differ
ence. The mortality from smallpox,
yellow fever and local calenturas has
always been frightful. Every day two
trains have been run from Aspinwall to
place inappropriately called monk
ey"-the Lone Mountain of the Isthmus
and everyone carried the burden of
corpses to the crowded cemetery.
This hot and humid atmosphere dis
integrates with inconceivable rapidity
all material exposed to its influence,
and earthquakes and terremoles occa-
sionally brighten people out of their
senses and knock things topsy-turvey.
Even could the canal be completed &C
cording to promise, it is serious ques-
ton whether it would eyer have been
made to pay for itself.
FANNIE B. WARD.