Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1914-05-23
COCKTAILS DREDGES
GAINING ON SLIDES.

Panama: Rock and dirt are still moy.
ing down the Cucaracha slide into the
Culebra cut, but the engineers who have
been fighting the treacherous slides in
this vicinity are at last gaining upon
nature. Fears that the opening of the
canal, set for January, 1915, would have
to be postponed indefinitely, haye been
growing less each day, for the dredges
and steam shovels to remove. The COM
ing wet season will be likely to loosen
anything ready to slide.
Dredging and hydraulic operations in
the cut continue day and night. Back
of Gold Hill the hydraulic pumps are
washing away vast quantities of loose
soil, greatly relieving the pressure which
has forced so much of the dirt into the
canal prism. At the toe Of the slide the
dredges have been busily engaged in re.
moving the dirt out of the canal itseli
while far up the side of the slide other
hydraulic operations are tearing at the
very heart of the hill.
Within a short time two new large
dipper dredges will be engaged. These
are the largest yet built of this type. One
already has been received on the 18TH
mus and is almost ready for operation
At the same time the dredge 'Corozal
will begin deepening the channel which
now averages about 25 feet, to the re-
quired As feet.
This deepening of the channel, the
engineers believe, will be tedious
operation, for the weight on the hill.
sides at Gold, Culebra and Contractors
hills is constantly forcing the bottom Of
the canal upward. 1t is anticipated that
this will continue until the weight on
the hillsides has been sufficiently lessen
ed.
According to figures just compiled
there have been removed from the cana
prism between Gamboa and Pedro Mig,
ual. which includes the entire Culebrs
Cut area, total of 27, 100000 cubicyards
of dirt with a probable 100000 cubic
yards remaining to be excavated.
The recent announcement of Col. Geo
w. Goethals, governor of the Panams
canal zone, that there would be no i'm
mediate reduction of the wage scale,
averted what threateded to become g
serious labor difficulty. The unions re
presented on the isthmus met and form
ed the metal trades council and obtain
ed strike sanction from their parent
bodies to be prepared for any emer
gency that might arise.
Work has begun on landscape garden
ing in the vicinity of Gatun locks and
dam. The top of the dam is being grad
ed for tropical plants under H. III. Reed
supervisor of the fourth division. 1t i,
planned to beautify the grounds sur
rounding all the locks just as fast as the
construction work has been completed.
The navagable reaches of the cana
will be allowed to grow up in their ma
tural tropical verdure, confined within
certain limits. Already in manv places
the canal looks more like a natura
water-course than one constructed b,
the hands of men.
AT Christobal it is proposed to buil'
tropical park along the land ends o
the wharves of the Panama railway.
Discarded canal machinery is bein
sold to several private corporations il
South and Central America. Venezuela
has had commission on the isthmu
which purchased considerable dredgin
machinery with which to deepen sever
al harbors. A number of the larg
dredges that cut their way thru Culebr'
cut have been sent to Puerto Rico
where they are soon to be engaged il
harbor work. Many of the locomotive
that hauled the spoil cars out of the Gu
have been sold to South American con
Germs. Because of their wide gaug
they are not suitable for railways in tn
United States.