Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1912-03-24
Pen Pictures of Work on Panama Canal and of the lsthus

;
can note this geographical fact
The entrance 10 the canal at Colon Is
now invisible from the steamers looked
in vain for dredges and excavating ma
teriaI. There were no piles Ot dirt and
rock. Everything is Of the greenest Of
green The shore Is fringed with cocoa
nut trees. and the green grass grows all
around.
The STEAMERS land YOU at Colon. a
ragged shabby town of low two-story
frame houses with galleries running along
the first stories ard shading the streets.
The town is horiered at one side with
eocoanut trees, and standing on the
steamer at tho right you see a great
cocoanat grove In which lies Chnstobal.
Colon's big American sister. This has
some Of the canal administration build
ings and the homes OF many employees.
They are all vciied IN wire netting and
there arc no ditch banks or dirt TO be
seen,
Riding Through q botanical Garden
Crossing the isthmus on the railroad,
along the line Of the canal. is for the
garden. You first pass Monkey HiH
cemetery. that horror OF the Panama OF
the past, but now a beautiful park, and
then come into a country where nature
runs riot In the luxuriance OF its tropical
vegetation. There are palm trees Of an
hundred varieties. Wild bananas anu
strange trees in which are 20 be seen air
plants and orchids hanging to the limbs
and nesting at the roots Of the branches.
There are great elumps OF bamboo with
leaves as feathery as those which line
the under wing OF an angel, aud great
beds Of tasseiated papSrus, the same
plant as that used in old Egypt TO make
the boat-lke cradle in which little Moses
rocked when no was discovered by Pha-
roah's daughter. Even beyond the Gatun
dam the country Ia stil green. You are
told you are on the line OF the canal. and
the very dirt over which YOU are passing
will form its bed. In other places the
woods are q jungle, and the hunter Will
point out the marks Of a Wild hog. a
deer, or a tapir. This country Is fun OF
wild game. one OF my fellow-iraselers
OF today. an American Judge OF the canal
some, tells me his chief sport Is hunting,
He shoots many deer, and he recently
killed taplr which weighed i,loo pounds
He says the tapir meat tastes like CHI
cago beef. nnd that the venison OF Fan
anna is as good as that Of the AdIrondacks
or the Rockies.
Riding Under the Canal Level,
shall not say anything here about
the locks nor the mighty Gatun DAM
which holds back the chagres. The rail'
road took Us to the top Of tho level and
then dropped us into the dam and carried
us over its basin. Already twelve feet
OF water have been let In and By the time
this letter Ia published the lake will bs
very much higher The railroad now
skirts the edge OF the filled portion al
the twelve-foot level and eventually there
will be fifty or SIXTY. feet Of water above
that OF the present track. Six months
from now the only way to traverse thai
track would be in a tube tunnel like thai
of the Pennsylvania railroad under the
river on the way to New York.
We wound our way for some mile.
through the basin. passing little villages
OF rude shaeks where negroes and r.d'
lattoes are still living. Notwithstanding
they have been warned by the govern
ment TO move. They can see the watel
come In, but they will hang on until q
comes To their doorways. which time vii
be soon.
Leaving the Gatun basin, you come e
a region where a great part Of the land
Is made up OF the soil that has beer
taken out OF the Cuiebra cut Neverthe-
less you cannot realize II, for the kind
mother OF the tropics has already spread
a coat OF vegetation over tho rocks and
hidden the scars, II IL only when you
enter the culebra cut and cross Il that
you realize what has been done. You
see thousands OF men working as the
railway carries you flying by, and an
endless river Of earth Is moving out on
tho cars TO be spread over the hollows
In one place I was shown dump which
contained i5,oocOo cubic yards OF such
spoil. Using our method Of calculation
above given, that spoil would equal q
ditch a yard wide and a yard deep ECO
miles long. 1t would FIJI altunnel run.
ming through the globe and still leave
enough to make ditch OF the above siz,
from New York to chicaso.
The railroad from the Culebra cut &c
Panama now crosses the cut in one place
Further along It runs or the canal bed
where year from now there will b,
over forty feet Of water, and shortl,
thereafter leaves the canal, and come,
into Panama, at the edge OF Ancon. Thu
Ia the old railroad. The aew line hai
been located and the grading for Il q
going rapidly on.