Norwich bulletin., 1913-03-13
$500, 600 DREDGES WILL
 KEEP CANAL CLEAR.
E. A. Tracy Tells of Means Govern
 n1ent Has Adopted at Culebrs.

Edwin A. Tracy entertained a large audience "Wednesday evening in the church with a most interesting ac- count of his recent trip to Panama. He told of the great engineering prob iens encountered in the project and of the impression of great size whf 7h one acquires in looking over the work. Mir. Tracy showed a chart pointing out the various points of special interest in the vicinity of the isthmus.
 MT. Tracy started from the Atlantte describing the various interesting points all along the canal. The Cule- bra cut, he said, is going through the lowest point in the chain of mountains and at this point the land was 312 feet above sea level. The excavations go leaving the bottom of the canal some 45 feet above the sea level. One Is impressed with the magnitude of the work when one stands upon the edge of the cut and looks down throughout its entire length. One hundred and fifty train1oads of earth are carried OH: of the cut each hour. The cut is about 1000 feet across at the top, 300 fesl at the bottom and 500 feet at the water line. We arrived the day aft # the great slide From the formation or the land there will always be land slides and when the canal Is com pleted there will be two dredges ready for action at all times. to keep the canal clear. These dredges cost $500, 0o6 each. Four of the dredges which at work exca vating now, each lifts seven tons of earth at one scoop. The earth is loaded on to cars and carrie1 away. In unloading there ts huge shovel, shaped something like a blow share. which runs on @ cable ami sweeps the dirt off whole train of cars at one stroke. It is about 5a miles from deep water Tn the Atlantic to deep water in the Pacific and all along the way are scenes of interest.
 Panama . panish scity.
 Our real delight, however, was IF the ancient town of Panama itself T city 400 years old The original city was destroyed by buccaneers and this present city was built up in the seven teenth century. It is fortified and thus was never again disturbed by maraud- CTS. Everything about the city is an cient and incites the interest and curt osity of the visitor. The very air of the place is Spanish All the hotels were filled to their capacity, but we were able to secure a hotel, which. however. was decidedly Spanish n that 1t lacked the elements of cleanli ness. The rooms were large and high and the windows, which were about eight feet wide. had no glass but were covered by big wooden shutters. We arrived during a carnival and pande monium reigned until about midnight, when things began to quiet down.
 Flies and Mosquitoes Banished
 One of the most unique tributes to the active energetic American minds is the fact that not fly mosquito is to be seen- The mosquitoes and flies, carrying the fever drove the French out of Panama, forcing them to give up their work on the canal, but the Americans have conquered the flies and mosquitoes, and thus the fever a greater feat than the canal itself. Up in the mountains, at the heads of the little streams barrels of oil from which comes 8 steady drip are placed The oil is carried down by the strea ms and spread through all the swan1ps and damp jungles, the breeding places of the insects, and the result is the flies and mosquitoes are exterminateT
 MT. Tracy told of the importance " hfch the canal will have with the whole world and said that it required the American mind and energies f. overcome the many problems of it's construction.
 Supper at Universalist Society.
 The Ladies society of the Univer- salist church gave most successful baked can supper Wednesday from : to o'clock in the social rooms with an attendance of about t5o. An ex- cellent menu was served under the di- rection of the following committee: Mrs Joseph F. Cobb Mrs. Addie Hen derson. Mrs. Thomas Underwood and Miss Addie Mckay.