The evening times., 1898-10-11
THE PANAMA CANAL.

There is to be opened in Washington
a headquartersl flor the Panama Canal
Company, to influence Congress. Maurice
Hutin, the director general. is on his way
from Paris. He. will bring the reports of
three engineering commissions. The New
York Commercial Advertiser says:
THE promptors of the Panama canal
assert that they will complete the cut
within the next eight years. They say
that all the difficult engineering prob
lens have been solved, and that they
will be able to secure in France all the
money necessary to carry the project to
a successful termination. They assert,
further that they will finish the canal
regardless of any action which Congress
may take with reference to the Nicara-
qua Canal. They are confident that IL
Congress decided to build the latter they
can finish their canal at least five or six
years before the former is ready for
commerce, and that during that period
interoceanic trade will be fully establish
ed on their route, and that once estab-
lished shipping will find no inducement
to change from their route to the Mic
araguan, because the latter is to be Ia
miles in length. against forty-six miles,
which Is to be the length of the Panama
route
Mr. Hutin's reports were made by the
international engineering commission.
which returned from its investigation of
the canal and its proposed route in Pan
anna early in the summer. Among the
members of his commission were Herr
Foulcher chief engineer of the Kiel ship
canal; Alphonse Fteey, chief engineer
of the Croton Aqueduct, and Henry l..
Abbot, United States army engineer
corps retired.
The report of this commission is said
to deal with each of the complex engineer
ing problems involved and that 1t will an
nounce that more than two-ffths of the
work is actually completed and that the
cut can be finished at a cost of about $780,
000,0oO The commissioners advocate the
abandonment of the De Lesseps plan in
constructing the central divide on the sea
level, and advise the construction of from
four to six locks one on each side of the
divide. The report says that for the pres
ent, at least. the De Lesseps plan is i'm
practicable and visionary.
In regard to the constant caving in of
sand and mud in the Culebra cut, near the
center of the line. the commission finds
that this is due to the heavy rains and
also 10 the fact that the engineers who
We're in charge of the De Lesseps plan
failed to make any provisions whatever
for draining the territory through which
the canal is TO be cut. The report says.
further, that the cut has already passed
through the strata of soft clay and that
the commissioners have found by borings
that the material changes TO hard rock.
The report also treats extensively on
the third problem, which the company has
been unable to solve as yet This is the
frequent floods caused by the overfiowing
of the Chagres River. which wash away
the work on the Atlantic slope The com
missioners hope to control these floods
in the future by building a big dam which
will hold the water in check and at the
same time furnish water for the locks, as
We'll as for tha hydraulic power TO OPP
crate them and the machinery 10 run the
dynamo which will generate the cleo
tricity for lighting the banks along the
canal"