The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-25


tion of the isthmus Is 800 feet above the
level of the sea, and the excavation in
those places had To be made through tha
solid rock, too. And then came the oh
stacse of the Chagres river, which was
practically insurmoGntable. The canal
crosses and recrosses it.
Were it an ordinary, well-behayed river
1t might be easily managed. But il is a
wild. wayward. untaTed river, like the
people OF the country through which it
flows heavy, tropical rain comes. and
1t rises forty feet in twelve hours. What
10 do with so much water, for it flows into
the canal as We'll, then becomes 8 problem
that has vexed the best engineers in the
world. The difficulty has been obviated
partly by an intri cate system of dams and
locks, but no one can say whether it would
have lasted or would have subdued the
Chagres in its widest moments
The canal, as originally intended. would
have been thirty feet deep. from 200 to $50
feet broad at the top and about 100 feet
broad at the bottom. On the Atlantic side
are eighteen or twenty miles of canal,
dredged to q depth of sixteen feet. by the
American Construction and Dredging
Company, and there are partial excava-
mons and lines traced by the French all
the way to Panama.
At Colon. lying in the water. is q huge
pile OF granclithic blocks, 0e00 in NUM-
Der. They were brought from the West
Indies at total cost of about 40 francs q
block. They were intended for banking
mp the canal, but were dumped off the
ships into the water years ago and have
been lying there ever since, monument
TO the recklessness and corruption of the
Panama scheme
The eighteen or twenty miles of partially
completed canal will soon become nothing
but muddy ditch. Ii Is not walled uD
with stone, out is inclosed merely with q
a wO0dAn Gh.a ho ,Esa
Ing In, and every time ii rains huge masses
OF earth are washed into the canal. In the
tropics winter IS replaced by a rainy sea-
son. Then 1t rains almost every day and
night. and the water comes down with q
protusion and violence unknown in these
temperate regions. In few years the
canal, except where cut through the solid
rock. VIII be filled up entirely by these
heavy washlngs, and the vegetation viii
begin to grow again where the dredging
machines tore 1t away.
The restoration of nature occurs much
more quickly in the tropics than in the
temperate zone, and the maintenance of
great engineering works in those regions
Is in the same proportion more difficult.
Often IN surveying railroad lines the route
traced Is covered again with vegetation be-
tore the engineers can come along and be-
gin their labors. Much of the work done
on the canal Is hidden already by the pro-
cess of nature. A warm rain falls. Then
we can almost see the Ui0nGs and the
bushes, and all the flowers and shrubbery
with which nature is so profuse in the
tropics, growing under the hot sun. The
vines creep over the canal cuts. They
drag more earth down with them. Some-
times trees fall over into the excavations.
Earth heaps up against them, and vegeta-
tion springs from the mass.
Thus nature Is fast covering up the
work done by De Lesseps and his men.
The ancient canal dug across Suez by the
Ptolemies was soon filled up by the shift.
ing sands when the civilization of the
East fell. and the ruin of Panama Is tax
ing place much faster. for Panama was
merely partial attempt. and. in addition,
nature down there has q much more fer
tile soil TO help her.
OF course work on the canal might be
resumed years from now. No one can
predict about such things, but it would be
a new canal. Many calculations have been
made as to the amount of money it would
require to complete it. even if work were
begun right away. None fail under $780,
100000. Some run as high as $3.50, ,00O, COO.
and few go so far as to say that the canal
cannot be built at all 50 that it will return
a fair interest on the investment. Skilled
engineers from the United States, Great
Britain and Germany have gone down to
the isthmus and looked at the work. They
are impartial. and they agree that in any
event the cost of construction would be
enormous. Lieut. Bonaparte Ward, who
obtained the original concession from CO.
lombia and was then crowded out of the
enterprise, was called back after the COM
pany began to fail into difficulties. He is
friend of the canal, and he says that
1,000,000,000 francs is moderate esti.
mate for the cost of completion.
W. 2. Williams, a member of the Ameri.
can Society of Civil Engineers, visited the
isthmus two or three years ago. before the
work had fallen into Its presen, state OF
dilapidation, and spent live weeks inspect
ing the canal. He said then: "The at
mosphere o. the whole work is indicative
of extravaganza. The contractor regards
the canal company as q bank of Inexhaus-
tible supply, to be drawn upon at all
times" Mr.. Williams said that the canal
would cost. if com pleted $1,000 Coz, 900.
Supposing that the tonnage passing
through 1t should be so much as 5000. 600
per year. De Lesseps' calc ulation. double
that of any other. he figured out that tho
yield on tax of $S per ton would be only
IL per cent. on the investment.
An English engineer, A. III. Hewetson,
also made thorough investigation, and
he says that TO complete the work on
paying basis is impossible. He thought
that the expense of completion would not
be less than 1000, 600 600 francs.
DR.. Wolfred Nelson spent several years
at Panama. He came to New York and
then went to Paris, where he told much
about the canal He said: "When one
talks of this canal it is necessary 10 con.
slider the spot in which this work is done.
In short. ii is place resembling nothing
with which we are familiar. It cannot be
compared with any great undertaking of
our times, and 10 Judge of il by European
experience and work will be to lay ourselves
opea to the most serious misconcep-
ton. Under the hot enervating climate
of the isthmus, surrounded by emanations
of ricn clayey soil, amid swamps in q
country but sparseiy populated, covered
by dense tropical vegett ton that nothing
can check. the white race cannot under
take work of steady character without
returning from time TO time to healthier
climate to reinvigorate themselves.
Under such conditions they can exist.
handle machinery and work under cover,
away from the sun aud rain. But TO dig
into the cart h and do steady manual labor
in the open. as men do in our climate, is
impossible, unless they expect the early
failure of their health and strength"
Severe as were the physical difficulties,
DIR. Nelson thought that questions of time
and expense were more important. and he
did not see how the canal could be cons
I'D