The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-11
lATURE TURNING GATUN LAKE INTO GOETHAISS GARDEN
of Water in Hill
Enclosed Lake Is to Be
Kept Eighty-6ve Feet
Above Sea Level---
Plenty of Rain to Feed
Watershed

-uE filing of Gatun Lake is
another important step in the
completion Of the Panama
canal. The surface of the water
htc hc kept s5 feet above sea level. This
means that least depth of As feet of
eater is to exist in all parts of the
lake.
There has been no doubt In thesininds
NJ Col. Cocktails and his fellow engineers
tina, the water supply would be plenty
Or AT uses Of the canal, but many other
engineers questioned this. They in
l ,,nced the great evaporation "a feet a
/ ,ear). the dry season of four months
/ xhcn no rain falls, the amount that
/ xould waste 10y seepage and the large
ouantlties required for locking ships
and doubted that the water supply
would bc sufficient. These critics should
NOT be confused with the calamity criers
who predicted that the dam at Gatun
would not hold. Nor should they be
mixed up with those who had esoteric
knowledge Of subterranean streams that
would rapidly drain the lake into the
Atlantic Ocean, once sufficient head of
water had been accumulated to force a
passage through the thin bottom Of the
valley into the streams beneath.
Both have been answered, however.
for there is plenty Of rain and there
has been over fifty feet of water in the
AXE for the last twelve months.
when the rainy season began in May.
1915 the surface of the lake stood at ~
Feet inches above sea level. At the
time of the flooding of Culebra cut, on
October 10, the surface was at 81 feet
doubtful then whether the final height
Of S. feet would be reached. but heavy
rains during November gave the
answer. In one period of twenty-four
hour there was rise Of one foot, and
On several days from two to four inches
. was added. The watershed of the lake
that is of the Chagres River) has an
area # 1874 square miles. and the rain
fall near the headwaters of the river
often amounts to five inches "A day. one
year it was go inches.
In appearance Gatun Lake is very
much Ike scores of glacial lakes in the
AdiroudaCks or other parts of the
northern United States. Hills hem it in
On all sides, scores Of islets break its
surface its arms stretch out into every
>pevice or enbrasure Of the enclosing
land, trees grow close to the water.
Another similarity is in the thousands
Of dead and dying trees that make parts
Of j. book Ike swamp; just as the
dams + ,umberman have changed SO
many OBJ; The Northern lakes. But this
Nem~a j., only temporary.
The a.st impoundins of water 10y HE
Gatun dam occurred in 1911, and trees
that We're surrounded by water at that
time haN" already passed through the
ycl', IF sulfuCatlon, ghosts and food
for insects and now are mere logs float
ing about or ready to topplc at the first
heavy blow by wind or floating island.
Al the time of the official opening of
the canal only comparative few of the
thousands of trees now standing gaunt
= IN the lake will remain. and these will
be on the outer margins where the
wa,cr has but recently reached them.
Some of the nakedness Of the dying
trees is covered by Spanish moss and
orchids The moss hangs in great fes-
toou, from many branches and "a tree
that is quite dead may look at a dis
tancc like fiourishing plant, so COM
pletey does the moss hide its whitened
limbs orchids for which one would pay
high prices in New York hang from
many branches or reach gladly up from
the trunks toward the sky. In the dry
season these give out rare blossoms,
some 80 fragrant that one can catch
the scent at half a mile distance.
Trumpet vines with their mantling
green and festoons OF purple flower
bells haN" also come to assist in making
a shroul for the passing jungle; and
tree that has fallen in shallow water
may have a myriad Of passion flowers
10 cover it; these also pour delicious
Fragrance into the winds that breathe
across the lake. Bamboo, stately, 1.-the
and with lacclike foliage, has begun to
spriug Up along the shores. In fact
naturr is working rapidly to replace the
tees hat the water has choked to
, dealt.