The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-20
PANAMA'S BIG DIT CHI

AS to just how much they need have
not been able to ascertain. 1 asked the
chief of construction today what
amount he thought was necessary. He
shrugged his shoulders and raised his
hands and his eyebrows as he replied:
"A great sum! A great sum-
The Canal Route.
But before I further describe the
work that is being done now, let me
give you the story Of the canal in a
nutshell. The Isthmus Of Panama is
much like the neck of an hour glass,
of which North America and South
America are the two globes. 1t is a
wonderfully slender and an exceedingly
tough piece of land. 1t is about as
long as the distance between Washing
ton city and Boston via New York, and
ranges in width from one hundred and
eighteen miles to about thirty miles.
Low mountains run irregularly through
it. 1t has plateaus and plains, and
near the coast Swamps and morasses.
Where the canal is being cut the dis
lance from one coast to the other as
the crow flies is probably not more
than forty miles. but the railroad line
is forty-SeVen miles long, and the route
laid out for the Panama canal is still
shorter. Some Of the mountains of the
lSlniluS uTe over I,JOO leel HlSH. AIOHS
the line of the canal the highest eleva-
ton is at the Culebra ridge. the point
that 1 visited today.
The canal begins at the port of Colon,
or, as you may call it, Aspinwall.
though Colon is the name used here.
Colon is not far from the mouth of the
Chagres river. on the little island of
Manzanillo, and at the terminus of the
Panama railroad. Starting here, the
line of the canal runs through the val
ley of the Chagres. cutting the stream
in many places. until at about four
teen miles or more the ground rises ir-
regularly until it reaches the top at
Culebra. There is all told about twelve
miles of deep cutting to be done, and
comparatively easy. There is much
worse rock on any of our railroad lines
than that Of the Culebra. One diff
Guilty is in taking care Of the waters of
the Chagres river. This Is now about
800 feet wide and two feet deep. 1t
looked little more than creek when
I passed along it yesterday. but in the
wet season 1t sometimes rises thirty
feet in a night and bears along every
thing in its floods. This river and the
big excavation are the engineering
problems of the canal. De Lessep's idea
was to hold back the Chagres by a big
dam and let it out gradually. The Chi
cago engineers who made the Chicago
drainage canal and who are now in
Nicaragua said while here the other
day that the Chagres could be easily
controlled, and also, after looking over
the entire route of the canal, ventured
the statement that the building of
sea level or a lock canal here was feast
bic.
What the French Have Done.
Every one has heard of the Panama
canal scandals. Toe truth is worse
than anything that has been published.
I will, further on, give some stories
which I have heard here of the eXtrava-
gances and frauds Of the first COM
panies, when champagne flowed like
water and gold was almost as plenty
as copper is in some parts of Montana.
Within less than ten years they spent
more than $3.50, Goo 600, and millions, of
this were almost openly stolen by the
contractors. At the same time the
work that was done remains, and if the