The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-03-26

- o4t q ll. way. II you could
look at the zone as DO the wild ducks
which f. over it you would be greatly
lisa The most Of the canal
does not show the work done upon IT,
ana YOU cannot realize thai more THAI
enough earth to make q wall nine
leet nigh and three feet wide clear
around the world has been moved.
gu are told that upward Of a quar-
ter or a billion Of money has been
spent and Q look in vain for the
marks Ct the dollars. You Will I'M
derstand all better later on when ]
take YOU through the canal.
Let me tell YOU in simple words
how the undertaking struck me as |
came in today. AS We approached
Colon | saw no sign Of a canal. There
was a breakwater away OF to the
right, but no evidence OF any interior
waterway. In fact, all my ideas were
turned upside down. | thought was
looking toward the west, and our
steamer was really facing the Pacific
ocean. which lay beyond a range OF
low mountains only fifty miles OF. but
10. the sun rose there rlght IN ouf
faces and out of the Pacific. and II
seemed to ne it perceptibly wlnked
as it squinted at me over this the
lowest range of the Andes.
I had to stop and think a moment
before | knew why this was. me
iSthmuS here runs east ana west IN
stead of north and south, and the
canal itself runs north and south IN
stead of east and west. | have q
room facing the east at Uncle Sans
big hotel here at Panama and | See
the sun actually rise out OF the Pacific
ocean every uorning. This part OF
the isthmus is the only place know
Of where. standing on our hemisphere,
YOU can note this geographical tact
The Canal at Colon.
The entrance to the canal at Colon
is now invisible from the steamers.
I looked in vain for dredSes and eN-
caEating material. There were DO
piles of dirt and rock. Everything is
OF the greenest Of green. The shore Is
fringed with cocOa1ut trees, ana the
green grass grows a. puma.
The steamers land YOU at Colon, a
ragged shabby town Of low tWo-story
frame houses with galleries running
along the first stories ana shading the
streets. The town is bordered at one
side with %cOcoanut trees. and staiidlnS
on the steamer at the right YOU see
a great c~ocoanut grove in which lies
Christobal, Colon's big American sis
ter. This has some of the canal add
ministration buildings and the ONE
Of many employees. They arc All veil
ed in wire netting and there are no
: ditch banks or dirt to be seen.
1 Atktl 10 St II.
Crossing the sthmus on the rail
road, along the line OF the canal, is
for the most part like riding through
/ a botanical garden. You first pass
Monkey Hill cemetery. that horror Of
the panama Of the past, but now i
: beautiful park, and then come into q
country whore nature runs riot in the
luxuriance OF its tropical vegetation.
t There are palm trees Of an hundred
, varieties. Wild bananas and strange
!, trees III which are to be seen air
plants and orchids hanging to the
Limits and nesting at the roots of the
branches. There are great dumps OF
bamboo with leaves as feathery as
those which line the under wing OF
, an angel. and great beds Of tasselated
papyrlls. the same plant as that useG
in old Egypt to make the boat-like
: cradle in which little Moses rocked
when he was discovered by pharaoh's
dam the countTy is still green. YoI
! are told you are or the line of III,
canal, and the very dirt over which
r you are passing will form its bed. II
! other places the woods are a jungle
and the hunter will point out The
marks Of a wild hog. a. deer. or {
tapir. This country is full Of wile
game. one Of my fellow~-travelers o,
q today, an American judge of the Ca
If nal Zone. tells me his chief sport i:
hunting. He shoots many deer, an(
he recently killed a tapir whicl
weighed 100 pounds. lie says thu
n tapir meat tastes like Chicago beef
and that the venison Of Panama i
as good as that Of the -Adirondacks q
4 the Rockies.
Riding Under the Canal Level.
= I shall not say anything here abou
the locks nor the mighty Gatun dan
= which holds back the ChaSres. Tn.
q railroad took us to the top of tn.
. level and then dropped us into tn
k Already twelve feet Of water nav
been let in and by tho time this let
g ter is published the lake will be Yer,
, much higher. The railroad nov
n skirts the edge Of ne filled portion
|at the twelve-foot leve. Id eventual,
0 there will be fifty or sly feet o
Ie water above that~of the present track
Six months from now the only wa