Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-17
SCENIC TREATS ON GATUN LAKE
Boats Have Been Introduced on That
Great Body of Water.

officers and enlisted men of the
United States army may now enjoy
boating excursion in Gatun lake,
which is rapidly assuming the dim
ensions it will have when the canal
is finished, and promises soon to be-
come renowned as one of the most
beautiful places on the beaten track
of travel. A man in Gatun has fit
ted out a large launch on which he
conducts sightseeing parties from
Gatun to Gorgona. The lighthouse
service is using the lake already in
construction work; three gasoline
launches at Gorgona and twice as
many canoes propelled by paddles or
rugged with sails are making ventur-
some trips on the wind-swept surface
and natives far back in the bush are
bringing their produce to market in
crude boats on the lake, gliding in
cayueos over fields that were eulti-
waited only few months ago. The
backing up of the water has made ev-
cry little creek that formerly poured
into the Charges a water highway
through the woods. That the man of
the army are having beautiful scenic
pictures to fill their minds and to en-
rich their memories through the com
ing years is made plain by this dis
cription in the last Canal Record of
scene on the F'rijoles river
Last Week four canoe loads of men
came up the river at sunset, when
the myriad tints in the sky were re-
Elected in the water and the drops
from the paddles glowed pink. Laugh
ing and singing, they drove the canoes
through the winding channel, and
one who saw them coming up the
treebordered lane might have thought
them an incarnation of an old print
of the. conquistadores on a voyage of
discovery.
One gets an idea of how fast veg
citation grows in Panama, for where
rocks and earth were being dumped
three or four years ago bushes and
trees are growing five or six feet
high. One effect of the rise of the
water has been to shake the skepti-
cism of the bush jewellers, who until
recently could not be made to believe
that it would be necessary for them
10 leave the area to be flooded by the
lake. The settlers were all reimburs-
ed by the government for their hold
ings, or improvements. many months
ago, and generally they have moved
mile or more back from the lake,
where they have built their huts, or
into the town sites set aside for that
purpose.
The lighthouse builders use the
lake to tow sand and all other mat
erial to the very spot where the
range lights are being erected. The
first official trip on the lake was
made by the branch of the service.
when Col II. T. Hodges, corps of
engineers United States army, ac-
companied the lighthouse engineer.
w. F. Beyer, on tour of inspec-1
ton the first week in October.
Strangers 10 the canal work do not
understand why the trees have not
been cut in the area which the lake
covers 1t is simply question of
cost The ship channel, from 1000
to 5000 feet broad, and the great
anchorage basin at Gatun have been
cleared and no further clearing is re-
quired for navigation. The lake will
have an area of 164 square miles
and to clear this would require an
expenditure of about s2.000,000 A
tree smothers when its roots are
covered with water, and already the
thousands of trees that have been
flooded are beginning to die. 1t is
probable that within a decade the
soft wood trees. that now stand so
naked and ghostlike above the water,
will have been uprooted and have
fioated downstream-From the Army
and Navy Journal.