Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-03-10
COL. COCKTAILS
CANAL CLEARED
Declares That He'll Attack
Slides In CuIebra Cut With
New Methods.
.OLONEL GEORGE w. GOE-

ed to have the Panama canal
cleaned up by June. In an exclusive
interview obtained for the New York
Sun he made light of the slides along
the nine mile Culebra cut and said that
there is little cause for apprehension
respecting future mishaps
While in Washington he made ar.
engagements with the standard commits
sion for tests of Il sOlidifying fluid
newly discovered, which is designed &c
turn soft earth into rock. 1t is plan
ned, if the tests prove favorable, tC
inject this fluid into the threatening
banks along the Culebra cut and thus
TO turn them from so much soft eartt
into solid walls.
The slides, if they continue. Colone
GoethalS says, must be dealt with af
they occur. New and more powerful
dredges than have heretofore been
used have been ordered and will soon
be digging up the sides of Gold hill
which slipped into the, Culebra cut and
reduced its depth from forty to thirty
feet.
Colonel Goethals, sitting in an office
looking out on the snowclad Battery
park, looked maybe a trifle older than
in the heyday of his fine supremacy in
the making of the canal.
At his courteous invitation / had
called to talk to him or, rather, to hear
him talk about the bothersome Slides"
says the writer. Since my visit to the
canal two years ago the matter of the
"SlideS" had been in my mind as an
ever threatening danger TO its naviga-
ton when the waters should be let in
and the canal open to traffic. At that
time the great Cucuracha slide near
the Pacific side of the nine mile Guile
bra cut was filling the whole canal ex-
cavatiOn for half a mile with coarse
red earth intermingled with rocks and
trees that had come down from the
hill above.
Gold hill is mountain on the other
side nearly opposite. 1t had been ac-
counted safe by the geologist. 1t had
been drilled for faults" and none
were found, yet it was there that the
latest and very big slide developed last
fall. The cause would seem to have
lain in the action of the water on the
soil
1t was a question before the water
was let in what its effect would be on
the sides of the excavation. The bal
ance of engineering opinion was that it
would have a sustaining effect-that it
would have the effect of push against
the walls. While not knowing enough
to gainsay that, / considered that the
disSOlving effect of the water on the
walls and the bottom was the factor
most to be reckOned with.
Colonel Goethals did not deny that
possibility, but looked on it only as
remote possibility. He is no alarmist,
but he can see where complete safety
is attainable. My proposition that
along the whole Culebra the cutting
down of the banks, giving them much
wider flare than they have now, was
desirable and ultimately should be done,
even at a cost of some millions of dol
lars, elected the response:
eyes, but the practical difficulty at
present would be where to begin"
Colonel Cocktails Task.
1t was admitted that along the line
of the Panama railroad there were cuts
whose walls were almost perpendicu-
lar and which had not crumbled appre-
Gladly in the fifty years since its con-
struction. In the same way it was rea-
sOnable to conclude that the banks of
the canal would stand unless an earth
quake or other violence disturbed their
equilibrium or where they proved per-
vious to water, as at Gold hill. There's
the rub"
Colonel GOethals talked freely and
easily, rarely needing the urge of a
question, and said in effect:
1.-The old Cucuracha slide, enormous
as it was, has been taken care Of by re-
moving earth and pressure from the
hill above and dredging the channel
there 100 feet wider, forming n sort
Of bay which will take up any fur
Their glisSade, should it occur, without
endangering the canal prism itself.
"On the opposite side stands Gold
bill and it was there that l discover
ed the fault or crack in the earth last
October-a longitudinal crack in the
side of the hill about 1000 feet long
1t was not slow in developing. The
crack widened and the earth on the
canal side of it began sliding into the
cut. The whole surface of the sliding
earth began sinking and the canal
prism filled up rapidly. On account of
the SoftnesS of the surface of this NOV
ing, sinking mass it was impracticable
to establish a steam shovel on it or
Law a track that would sustain a loco
motive and a train of cars. There was
nothing to do but dredge it as it came
down.
No Sign Of Movement.
''The mass of Cold Hill back Of the
fault showed, and has since shown, no
movement or tendency TO move, so
that as things look now it would be
impolitic to attempt any treatment of