Evening star., 1915-12-17

/
to be earthquake experts. but there is
little chance that earthquakes have
much to do with the case. The prob
lem is really a simple one, but 1t is
tremendously big.
| Culebra cut is a notch clear through
mountain range, the puny Central
| A m e Il C a n
Culebra Cut Notch chain tn t
Through Mountains. Andes with
the Mexican Rockies. completing the back
bone of the hemisphere. A very small
mountain range is this one at Panama.
but it has a core of solid primitive
rock and a crest several hundred feet
high Culebra cut goes right through
this core with a wall of solid rock on
either side, but over the solid rock lies
a covering of soil which towers equally
| high-or did at f1rst-and does not
stand so firm. When the Frenchmen
made the first scratch on the back of
Culebra mountain little rills OF earth
came pouring in from either side, and
gained headway until the thing be-
came a race between the men and the
cascades of mud-a race that is not
yet over. -r-e..
The engineers, however, were conf
dent, and they based all their conf
dence upon a term-the angle of re-
pose. Any material, they pointed out.
will keep on sliding until it reaches
certain angle and then it will stop. SO
they made a conservative estimate of
the angle of repose for the clay walls
of the canal and issued an authorita-
tive statement of the millions of cubic
yards of mud that would have to be
dredged out of the canal before that
angle was reached. And after they
had dredged out those millions. more
millions slid in and they issued another
estimate. And SO on down to this
writing.
a long time ago some geologists said that
| the matter was not quite SO simple as
that. They pointed out that the material of
the slides was nearly all earth and that
the heavy tropical rains of the isthmus
kept 1t saturated with water throughout
| the wet season. Earth has a relatively
steep angle Of repose, but earth saturated
with water Is mud, and mud will often
refuse to stand at a greater angle than l
| to 100 Therefore. said the biologists,
the way to solve this problem is to build
a roof over the earth to keep it dry,
pump the water out Of 1t, cover it with
concrete and SO bring 1t to repose much
more quickly. To practical engineers this
idea sounded a bit fanciful, and 1t was
ridiculed Nevertheless. it probably will
get another hearing now.
| Meanwhile, the canal has been closed
since September II, and all authorities.
Constitutional
Canal Has Been Closed and admins
Since September II. to nronhesv
when 1t will be open There were 375.oOo
tons Of commerce waiting to go through
the canal when it closed. Some of it
| fIa ~
loss. and some Of it waited for the canal
to open, meantime eating up profits in
time and provisions. No one has made
an estimate Of the total losses caused. but
they have undoubtedly been enormous.
| At present the canal administration is
doing it's best to relieve the situation by
means of the Panama railroad.
When the canal was opened, the rolling
stock and all other facilities Of this line
were greatly reduced, and it was allowed
| to carry only local freight. so that it
might not compete with the big water
| way 1t is now carrying from four thou
| sand to FIVE thousand tons of through
freight every day, That will only take
| care of a fraction of the canal business,
but it will go a long way toward reliev-
ing the present congestion at the term
inals. A. fiat rate of 50 ton for all
classes of freight has been declared.
Formerly the rate was from 80 to SIS. ac-
cording to the class of commodity. Thus
the government is doing its best to mini
mize the loss Of the shippers who patron
iZe the canal
|
|
| To transship across the canal by rail
| is decidedly the best expedient as the
| ships are
Voyages Around Horn then imme-
Eat Into Profits. ~
new cargoes. whereas to go around
the Horn adds. so: much to the length
| of the voyage as often to eat up a
large part Of the profit. A ship bound
| from San Francisco to London, for ex-
ample, would require about twenty
nine days longer to go around the Horn
than to pass through the canal if it
were open.