The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1913-10-03
|1bs americans
4 IN Panama
| Story of the Panama Canal
From Start to Finish
| By WILLIAM R. SCOTT
,uobed BY the statler Publish
f ~ company, sol Fifth avenue,
NV York city.
,,.sr,rht 1872 and 1918, by William
VIZ K. Scott.
~ WILLIAM R. SCOTT
continued from last week.

s,5io more frequent and heavier and
~ way of coming up about the
.ns time every day. sometimes in
4 ,ftprpoons. sometimes in the morn
J, construction operations have to
,rsOpnded during the violent rains.
N tbe Atlantic side the rainfall av-
zoos between 1870 and 140 inches an
IN, on the Pacific side from 60 to
inches. At times it rains so furi-
AN that 1t appears to be one continu-
4, sheet of water falling. For one
m tbe record fall is 5.S6 inches; for
4 dsr, at Porto Bello, 1906 inches;
three minutes 2.46 inches fell at
4 same place, and at Panama on
f Nv ~, 1912, 6 inches fell in two
inns The years 1906 and 1909 were
/ wettest since the American occu-
|ston and 1912 the driest.
| lte heavy precipitation makes the
|seS of Panama torrential streams
m Chagres river has risen twenty
| Ia feet in twenty-four hours. During
|rsy season the records left by the
|InDcb and kept by the Americans
|ne their occupation show that this
EPr discharges enough water to fill
II proposed Gatun lake one and one
In times. 1t is not expected that any
hi Of water for the lock type canal
hi will be experienced.
Eycept for the beaten paths and
|ared spaces constantly maintained
Z Jungle is king in Panama. One
|asns growth will cover an aban-
Rhed clearing with the luxuriant
Hgical vegetation. When the Ameri-
nE entered the canal zone most of
h French machinery and even whole
WINS were covered by the jungle. /
There are the usual tropical fruits,
iRnas cOcoanuts, alligator pears,
apayaS, mangoes and other less well
HOWn varieties. The vegetation in
HdeS the royal poinclana, palm and |
Der stately trees. The rare orchid
lat home on the isthmus, about sew
lyIfve varieties being found. dozen
which are of the most beautiful
bis A dry season of four months
'S not parch the growth. but the
by season gives it the most brilliant
Rn cOlOrng.
SODe of the big animal life Of Africa
found anywhere in South America,
Panama has even less dangerous
sies than the mainland. The ta-
lula, coral snake. tiger cats. deer
other larger though not so dan
nus animals are found, and alliga-
abound in the rivers and bays as
as sharks. The insect life is Won
fully varied, the birds are in Infinite |
iety and most beautiful, while wild |
Eers Of dazzling colOrs are in pro-
bon. The canal zone, where occu-
in the canal operations, long since
i freed of dangerous animal life.
Distinct but inconsequentlal earth
Pike shocks have been felt IN Pana-
for centuries. The San Francisco
Rhquake in 1906 was not recorded
1.-The canal zone seismograph. In the
century violent shock Oc-
med, but none in the eighteenth and
leteenth centuries, nor has any been
satded in the twentieth century, al
AsNgh in Costa Rica, the republic adj
nlng Panama, a severe shock in
~ caused a considerable loss of life
p prOperty. So far as past perform
|s can Indicate, the canal should
safer from earthquakes.
To- Atlantic and Pacific oceans are
the same level, but the tide on the
|kHe side has a maximum lift of
EAty'One feet. while ON the Atlantic
The maximum lift is only two and
sAaIf feet. Allowance for this va
aen was made by providing a deep
aaAnel for the canal on the Pacific
50 that the passage Of ships will
Oeatfected by the tides. The shape
ae bay of Panama causes the high
% the Pacific side.