El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-05-11

were 81 barEes. IS yawls and q steam
/ launches There We're go steel cranes
/ 40 steam winches, 500 big pumps Of
various kinds. 100 rock drills and $50
/ punching machines There was
floating drill which I believe, is now
in use. which was valued by the
! French at $4,000. and other dredges
and drills running into the millions
There were "a American locomotives,
valued at 5000. 600. and more than 200
Belgian locomotives, together with
hundreds Of smaller steam engines
There were steel rails enough TO build
over 200 miles Of track and 5000 dump
cars.
OF this machinery a vast amount Of
it was as good as when it was made.
although some had been left in the
jungle and had rusted away The
French watched out for their supplies
They coated the machinery with par
affine and other oils. and painted some
parts OF Il with white lead II is oW-
ing TO this care that we have been
able to use so much of the stuff.
French Dredges Which Work for
Uncle sam
Take. for instance. the dredges-
There are French machines working
al both ends of the canal This is so
OF one Of the best dredges Of the Bal
boa channel. which has been remade
and equipped with modern appliances.
Another dredge, which lay for 20 years
sunk in the mud near the Pacific, was
taken up. cleaned and repaired. and
Il is now gOuginE out and loading all
the sand used for the Pacific end OF
the canal Two big dredges were
taken out OF the mud on the west
bank Of the ChaEres and floated down
to the dry cocks at CristObal. Here
they were repaired and they are now
at work in LimOn bay
We have even used the old dredges
Of the ladder type, consisting of an
endless chain of 70 steel buckets
which SCOOP the mud from the bottom
{ Of he canal II a
chute at the side into a barge. These
dredges had good boilers and the ma
| chinery was found IN excellent con-
ditiOn on account Of its careful olllnS
and painting before il was abandoned
! Those dredges cost tens of thousands
Of dollars. They were brought here
i in 1885 and they remained IN the mud
more than 20 years Their tenders
? were silted over by the bay and were
/ closed IN by a bank OF sand six feet
/ high, in which a tree forty feet tall
/ was growing our engineers nad 10
I cut a channel 40 feet wide into the
dredges and then take them out and
repair them It is a wonder that they
could have been used at all. but ] am
( told that they have done excellent
work
There were four other ladder dredE-
| IS nearby which have been put 10 use,
and on the Pacific side the hull Of a
ladder dredge was raised and prepared
! for work The same is true OF exca-
/ vatOrs Of one kind or another and also
! OF locomotives and cars
The French Railroad Material.
A vast amount OF the French rail-
road material has been used, and some
OF this machinery is still working
+ Many OF the locomotives left we're
worth $4,000 and upward apiece. and
there were 26l locomotive cranes
each OF which. IL We would have had
TO buy them. would have cost $4,000
Some OF the locomotives were right
out in the jungle. 1 remember when
was here in 1906 scared a flock Of
bats from one OF them and was at
tracked by swarm Of fellow jackets
which had made their nest inside the
poller or another Great lizards in
Guiding iguanas, crswled a5ou+ hero
and there under the car wheels. and Wa
had to walk carefully for fear OF