Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-12-03
CONDITIONS Of THE
CANAL AS FOUkDB BY TAFT
CONTINUED from page IL


being done In the Culebra cut. TIL,
task here Is a severing of the back
bone of two continents. The sans
chain of mountains that twists
through the far west In The States
and is known as the Rockies appear
in dwarf form on the slender Ifni
between the North and South Amer
lean continents to break out later, II
majestic peaks and mountain gran
deur, as the Andes. In South Amert
ca. The severing of the backbone O.
two continents Ia a Gargantuan sur
gical operation of nine miles of cut
ting. The French did a portion OF
the work. but on a small scale. Al
present a horde of steamshovefs IL
eating away the ground, dirt trains
hustle back and forth carrying the
debris. and there is q constant roar
of blasting for much of the cut is
through black, vocanic rock.
At bottom the Celubra Cut will
have a width Of 500 feet. From the
lowest level the side walls slope up
gradually to the banks. 1t is here
that the greatest difficulty Is eneoun-
tered in canal digging. from ~caye-ins
of the banks. Much of the vocanic
rock disintegrates under the action
of the air, and the side walls slide
down to the bottom. There Is no
preventive measure against such ac-
cidents. All there is to do is to re-
move the slide. Eventually the slope
at the sides will be SO gentle, after
hundreds Of slides, that there will be
no danger. Meanwhile they oecar
daily, and down on the canal the en-
gineers shrug their shoulders philo-
sophicalfy and get down and sweat
in moving the extra dirt. Up In the
States citizens who don't know bet
ter shake their heads and prophesy
dire things. -o
By the time the canal is eomplet-
ed the passenger on a liner utilizing
1t will probably never notice the
famous Gatun Dam-notwithstand-
ing 1t ID n OF the marvels of a
multitude Of gigantic engineering
feats on the Isthmus. The behoIder
will lee the dam a. a natural noun
tain, provfdentially placed by Al
mighty hands to hold the lake in
check. Az a matter of fact, 1t is a
mountain but built by human hands
with Infinite care and patience.
The GAtun dam will impound the
waters of Gatun Lake, an frregularly
shaped artificial body of water cover
ing about 164 square miles. II Is
nearly II miles long, nearly one
half mile thick at It's base and about
lis feet high. Two miniature paral-
lei mountain chains are being heap
ed up here, and between them mud
and clay are being pumped. The
interior case of mud and clay hard
ems, and when the water is let in
against the dam, the earth, being of
a kind which becomes impervfous
under the action OF. water, likewise
hardens. The mound of earth be-
comes a rocky mountain.
Vegetation grows with such aston
ishing speed and rankness In the
climate on the Zone that within a
few months after the Gatun dam is
completed all the earth above the
water will be covered by an imper-
vious tropical growth of brush and
trees, To the man from the States
the luxuriousness of tropical growth
is amazing. G. S. Blackburn, who
was formerly governor of the Canal
Zone, used to declare. that he was
afraid to let his cane stand upright
out of doors overnight lest In the
morning he would awake to find 1t
rooted in the earth and spreutins
branches. The banana, orange, CO.
eoanut and sugar ane grow wild
over the Isthmus. IL American
energy could discover some method
Of ravitalistng the xhiftless natives
and inspiring them to steady work,
millions may DC made La the eullivs-
ton of these crops. As 1T ia the