The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-09-21
CHANGING THE MAP
OF CENTRAL AMERICA
AN INLAND SEA WHERE RECENT
LY THERE WAS ONLY A TROP-
ICAL JUNGLE.
BY CREATING GATUM LAKE

Il W. ONCShAAos
WASHINGTON, D. C.-While the
soldiers of Europe are putting the
facts of the political geography of
their continent through kaleido-
scopic jig the final adjustments of a
change in the physical geography in
Central America brought about by
United States engineers are taking
place. The interesting features con-
nected with this man-conducted met
amorphosis in the Isthmian world S
surface, the creation of an inland sea,
the drowning of a tropical jungle and
the enforced migration of swarm of
jungle life from the valley bottoms to
the hills-as depicted by George Shi-
ras, Bird, in a communication to the
National Geographic Society-is told
in the following bulletin:
"Gatun Lake is not only the largest
fresh water lake ever created by men
"a navigable viaduct almost bridg-
ing the two oceans and reached by
terminal elevators in the form of
locks-but, in addition a vast reser-
voir for the adjoining watersheds,
assuring throughout the year a suf-
ficient water supply for the opera
ton of the locks, for electric power,
for the establishment of inland fish
cries and for domestic uses. The
lake, much larger than the one that
the French intended to construct, also
allows greater freedom and speed to
the vessels using the canal, and per-
mits local navigation of many of the
jungle valleys.
What the Change Means.
when the long embankment at
the north end was closed, thus stop
ping the only gap that nature had left
in the rim of hills, the inland waters
began covering the lowlands, creep
drowning the mighty forests and the
rank tropical JungIes, flooding out ma
tive villages and destroying scattered
plantations, NARROWING wild creatures
like the monkey, OcelOt, peccary, ar
madillO, and the sloth on hilltopS I'M
expectedly converted into permanent
islands, submerging the mudfloats of
the heron and ibis, driving the deer,
the jaguar, the tapir, iguanas and
monster snakes through the rising
waters to less hampered retreats, and
opening up a new and larger home for
the swamp alligator and the stream
confined fish.
Here all the centuries long process
of the sinking of the land and the
rising of the waters was enacted in a
fascinating nature drama of a few
months. Gatun lake, at a surface ele-
walton of IS feet, is estimated to COW
er 164 square miles and extends not
swampy ground of the Chagres valley
but it has risen so far above the floor
of the lowlands as to extend for miles
between the hills, forming estuaries,
lagoons and ponds, turning rapid, I'M
navigabIe streams into deep, sluggish
rivers, and converting hilltops into
beautiful islands, some of them miles
in length, while thousands of acres
of flooded and fallen timber, into
which stretch or circle narrow necks
of land, practically defy any accurate
estimate of the so-called shore line
of the new lake.
Its Size Yet Unknown.
mo one yet accurately knows the
size and shape of the new lake. Much
of its far-reaching, irregular surface
is yelled by whole forests which break
through its waters, a dying Jungle
barrier to a know edge of the inland
sea. When these obstructing forests
and bushes are at last destroyed by
the warm waters of the food and
permanent fringes of bamboo and
other semi-aquatic growths mark the
line of the shore, then the heretofore
half-shrOuded lake will glisten near
and far in tn etropic lights, while the
surrounding shores, each bay and
prOmOnOtOry, and the islands, big and
little, will stand out sharply defined.
1t will then be difficult to realize
that this lake is the work of man.
AS the lake swelled from a pond
into a sea the Indians of Panama
saw all their. notions of inland navi-
cation swept by. the board. They had
been accustomed to polling or pad
ding in the swiftest streams in their
cayuca, or dugOut, but they found
that no one among them knew how
to handle the canoe under the new
conditions brought about by the
lake.
The Indians, however, were the
least sufferers caused by the magic
appearance of the lake. There are
forests of fine trees slowly dying, as
is a luxurious mass of jungle plant
life On many of the trees are great
pendant armite nets filled with rest
less ant-like creatures doomed to slow
starvation. And, besides, many an
finals have suffered the fate of being
marOoned and slowly starved. The
coming of the lake has worked a con-
siderable damage upon the life that
was there before, but unlike the
changes wrought in European geog-
raphy this change will be permanent.
its utility, its comfort to a readjusted
plant and animal world and its trop-
ical beauties. in all likelihood. will be
lasting on through many reaTrange-
/ ments of imperial boundaries"
Did the Old Man Good.
Geo. w. Clough. of Prentiss, Miss,
l. ~ oil bod