East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-08-17
FACTS ABOUT THE SEA Level.
CANAL SCHEME.

Objections to the sea-level plan of
constructing the Panama canal are
shown to be very serious ones in a
paper on the subject written by Cas-
sius +. Gillette, major of engineers,
L. $. A. The major writes long and
studious article from his headquar-
terS, Pacific division, engineer office,
San Francisco, to the Engineering
News of New York, which has the pc
culiar value of expressing a reversed
opinion arrived AT after making a
close personal study of the conditions
of the isthmus, where he served on
the commission in 1904,
The fact that he went to Panama
with preconceived judgments in favor
of a sea-level canal and then changed
them after an actual study of the
grounds gives the paper a special
claim to attention, for men seldom
alter their prejudices without stronger
reasons for doing so than those which
induced the first favored ideas. He
has had large experience in river con-
troll and lock and dam construction.
II is from the standpoint of an ex-
pert in river control that De sees one
of the most grave objections to a sea-
level canal. The river surface of the
Chagres is about 80 feet above the
sea and the silt of that and other
streams which would pass into the
canal would require constant dredg-
ing and necessitate a very wide canal
in order to let the big vessels pass the
of diverting the silty waters would be
enormously expensive.
The watershed is 25O square miles
and this whole area of flood must be
kept out the canals by dams and by
diversion channels. The canal must
and the sediment of even the smaller
is a serious matter. Some of
the rivers are subject to torrential
floods. Similar objections would hold
against 3O-foot level, and indeed for
any lesser height than 100 feet. which
\ part of the plan of the 1OO-foot
level canal is to be a great dam at
Gatun. the range, of hills there being
the farthest one north that crosses
and has sufficient height Such a dam
would form a lake of 100 square
miles. with abundant storage waters,
and capable of settling for ages all
the mud that the streams would bring
down into it. This dam could be built
out of the dirt from the Culebra cut
with a haul of but 25 miles. BY this
plan $34.OOO,O0O could be saved and
a channel five feet deeper and much
wider than the proposed sea-level one
would connect the oceans.
Such canal would be readily en-
larged with the progress of naval ar
chitecture and growth of commerce
a thing which would be almost an i'm
possibility with the deep cut to sea
level. The Suez canal is already too
small for modern tonnage, and the
history of canals and commerce shows
that repeated enlargements Of chan
mel must be provided for and counted
upon in all plans.
Another plan proposed by Major
Gillette is in regard to the prevention
of seepage in the construction of the
Gatun dam. He proposes to sink pipe,
and force, under great pressure, ce-
ment grout through it to close such
openings as may be in the sand or
gravel strata. This method of pre-
venting percolation he advises as
much superior to driving dohn sheet
piling Not by any means the least of
his arguments is that the canal he
proposes could be built in five years,
as compared with the estimates for
the others of IL years spent in con-
Francisco Call.