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

But all this is only preliminary. |
snail describe the canal in detail as
| go over it. In a nutshell it is fifty
miles long from deep water in the Pa
cine TO deep water in the Atlantic.
from shore line to shore line the
length is forty miles. In going
through it the vessels enter Limon
Bay, q magnificent harbor, and steam
thence through the first Atlantic
stretch, which is over seven miles
n to Gatun. The ship is still on
the level of the Caribbean when it
gets 10 Gatun, but there it meets the
great locks, which, filled by the
Cragres. lift it eighty-five feet into
Gatun Lake. | will tell you later
how 1t goes through these locks and
h the locks are like.
In the lake itself the steamer may
, pass at full speed to the entrance TO
the Culebra cut, and the same level
IS maintained until you reach the 9TH
er end Of that cut at Pedro Miguel.
There the vessel enters a lock and
drops about the height OF a three
story house into a small lake which is
ABOUT hfty-fiVe feet above sea level.
That lake is yet to be made, but it
will be 4 mile and a half long and
ffty-hVe feet above the sea. At the
end Of the lake there are two more
locks n above the cher which sue
cessively drop it down from the height
OF q fVe-stOry fiat to the channel and
on the level Of the Pacific ocean. Our
snip is now only eight and a half
miles from the ocean itself and is
ready to steam off to China, Japan,
Australia, or anywhere else IN the Pa
cific.
ignorance About The Big Ditch.
That is the story of the canal in
q nutshell, but it is one which many
do not understand. During the COM
ing campaign We shall nave stump
speeches whore the orators will speak
OF bringing the waters Of the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans together. They do
not come together here at Panama.
and If they did they would have to
low uphill to q height of eighty-nye
rect. n salt waters nave but little
70 90 with moving the ships from
ocean to ocean. 1t is the fresh water
OF the Chasres river hat does that
work.
nevertheless some supposedly we'll
informed men cannot appreciate this.
one Of the chief O~:.cials Of the. Island
OF Jamaica visited the canal the 9th
CT lay, ile was made much Of and
was taken over it from one side to the
olher. At the close he said to Col.
Cocktails:
IT ls a wonderful undertaking., but
II seems to some Of our people in
u one, IOi 10eG
Tear that it may affect the current Of
5 the Guif stream and defect It"
L am assured that this story is
true, although at first T could hardly
: believe 1t. The nan referred to is the
commander Of the British forces in
CARPENTER TWO
| the West indies, stationed at Jamaica
A story somewhat similar was
, floating upon his imaginative Carib-
!, bean air when ! was here in 1898
< now fourteen years ago. The latter
! feiated TO q Yankee sea captain anL
r a clustering son Of John Bull. The
+ R~rltlsher was boasting Of the power
). OF ms government, and saying how i
D would wipe out the United States If
case Of Z wal between the two coun
e tries. I~hereupon the Yankee tar re.
!, Piled:
I Indeed, man, it makes me laugh t
a hear YOU Rritishers blow. Why, i
Uncle Sam wanted to clean out YOU
( tight little island all he need do i
i to dig a ditch through the :Isthmus o
o Panama and turn the Gulf stream
t into the Pacific. The next winter af
t ter that England woul be as cold a.
9 Labrador and you Britishers woult
f turn into Eskimos."
Many Of the tourists, and ever
Il some of the writer's about the cana
3 who come here, show an ignoranc,
= i - oioSoo X III nay
lady correspondent from the Niddl'
West was sent down to spend a Weel
II write a dozen letters
II She interviewed every one, %includin;
9 the secretary Of the commission, who
during the talk, happened to mention
8 De Lesseps.
e "De Lesseps?' said the girl. "Wh'
C was De Lesseps anyhow? Every on
is talking about De Lessps. Oh,
IS remember now He was the man VIII
t, discovered the Isthmus Of Panama
# A Railroad View Of The Canal.
IS But let us return to the n prop
i er. The great ditch, as it looks today
is far different from anything on
o can imagine. Many Of YOU have pic
e lures of it in your minds. You see
: ragged excavation of dry rock an
n earth. cut here and there by water
d ways and running across the lstnniu
10 from one side to the other, WIN SON
o,a, 1T tho hills You ma