The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1913-05-08
The Panama Canal.
An Interesting Account of Trip Across
the Isthmus.

interesting letter from MaurltZ nj. Mel
son, young man who had his home for
some time with Mr.. and Mrs. Farrow in
Belmont, and is now making good in
Uncle Sans navy. The letter is dated
at Chrstobal, Canal Zone, April 18th,
and we are permitted to make the fol-
lowing extracts:
Il have been all through the canal and
seen nearly all of it. Of course as we
had only one day we could not stop and
see much of the details, but we got a
comprehensive look at it. We left
Christobal, which is the Atlantic termi
nal, at O'Clock Wednesday morning. A
special tram came down the dock abreast
the ship and as soon as we got aboard it
pulled out The first stop was at Gatun
locks, where we stopped for one hour.
went all through the locks Il am sending
you photo of them) and saw how the
water is turned on and let out and how
the gates are operated. 1t was very.in-
terestlng. You can see the movable
dams in the picture. They are only for
use in an emergency, In case vessel
hits and rams one of the gates, when
they are swung across and the wickets
lowered to stop the water while repairs
are made, But there are small chances
of ramming as there are two large fender
chains stretched across the chamber for
ward of the ship, and the ship does not
go through under its own power, but is
lowed through the locks by powerful
electric locomotives, and as it gets near
the gates it is stopped and then the
fender chains are lowered.
They had only one of the towing loco
motives here, but had good look at it.
There will be four of them to each ship,
one on each bow and one on each quarter,
to go ahead and pull back, so you see
vessel will be under complete control at
all times while in the locks. After going
through the Gatun locks the ship enters
Gatun Lake. which is an artificial lake
covering 1874 square miles, formed by
placing a large earth dam at Gatun and
daming the Chagres river. At the
dam will be built hydro electric plant
to generate all the power for operating
the locks and lighting the canal at night.
During the rainy season the Chagres
river has been known to rise % feet in
"a hours, and it would not take it long to
fill the lake and have a lot to spare. A
ship going through the lake will go at
full speed under its own power, until Bos
Obisqa is reached. Then the canal mar
rows down to about 500 feet in width all
through the Bos Obisqa and Culebra Cut;
and believe me, this is some cut. 1t is
about $50 feet deep and don't know ex
actly how long, but it is big hole in the
earth. Going from Gatun to Obisqa we
passed about 10 dirt trains, each consist
ing of two engines and 20 cars. They
use fiat cars with sheet iron t1ange be-
tween them. They have only one side to
the cars and when the train gets to the
dump they meet car with plow (some-
thing after the fashion of a road ma
chine) on it and at the other end ma
chine to pull this pillow over the train.
and as it goes over the cars it throws the
dirt over to one side When the train is
emptied it is switched to one side and
another comes in. After train load is
dumped a spreader like a snow pillow is
run over the dump and shoves the dirt
down the embankment and also levels
the dump, SO that they have only to move
the track over, and so keep dumping
right along.
After going through Culebra Cut the
Pedro Miguel lock is right ahead 1t
has but one chamber and lowers the ship
to the Mirafores lake. This is only
small lake between Mirafores locks and
Pedro Miguel locks The Mirafores
/ locks have two chambers and they lower
the ship to the Pacific. At Mirafores
we got off the train and had dinner at
the Isthman Canal Commission hotel
1t is only short distance from the city
of Panama and | rode over and spent
two hours there. | went into hat store
to price the hats (Panamas) and there
was one all finished up for which the
dealer asked 81. did not really want
it, but said will give you 49, He said
he would not sell for that and | started
out, but he called me back and told me
to take it, and got a genuine Panama
for what you would have to pay in the
States for good straw hat
AFTER that got in a carriage and
went around the city and saw all there
was to be seen. 1t looks to be clean
place since the United States got hold of
it. 1t is situated within the canal zone
but is under Panamaian civil govern
ment, and is the capital of the Republic
of Panama.
cat Panama we got on the train and
came directly back to Colon. got about
100 post cards, which will send you from
New Orleans when we get there, which
will be about the 26th or 9th of this
month";
Maine Sawmis Running.
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