The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-03-17
Committee of Scientists Elk
poets No Serious Trouble
At Canal.
EXCESSIVER RAINFALL
BLAMED FOR SLIDES
Prophesy Moving Ground
Will Continue To Harass
Several Years.

| the near future, according to the
finding of a committee of scientists
appointed by the National Academy
of Science at the request of President
| Wilson to investigate the problem.
/ While the committee realizes that
slides may be a considerable main
tenance charge upon the canal for a
number of years it believes there
will be little trouble after present
| difficulties have been overcome.
A summary of a preliminary report
| by the committee was made public
today at the White House. No time
was set when the canal can be opened
! for navigation, but it was said that
this time is not far off"
|, Although the committees final re-
| port will not be ready until April, Will
| liam Hi WEIGH, president of the Acad-
| eny has transmitted to President
Wilson a preliminary report of the
committee prepared by Charles X.
Van Hise, President of the University
/ of Wisconsin, chairman; General H. L.
! Abbott, corps of engineers United
States Army; John G. Branner, geo
Iogist in the United States Geological
Survey; r. c. Carpenter. professor of
| mechanical engineering in Cornell
University Arthur p. Davis, chief of
the Reclamation Service, Washington;
John r. Freeman, constructing en-
gineer Providence; J. F. Hayford,
dean of the College of Engineering,
Northwestern University; Harry Field
ing Reid, professor of engineering,
Johns Hopkins University.
1.-THE committee looks to the future
of the canal with confidence" the re-
port declares. ''It is not unmind-
full of the labor necessary to deal
with the present slides, and it realizes
that slides may be a considerable, but
not an unreasonably large, mainten-
ance charge upon the canal for
number of years; it also realizes that
trouble in the Culebra district may
possibly again close the canal. New
ertheless, the committee firmly be-
1ieves that, after the present Difficult
ties have been overcome navigation
through the canal is not likely again
to be seriously interrupted There is
absolutely no justification for the
statement that traffic will be repeated
Iy interrupted during long periods for
years to come. The canal will serve
the great purpose for which it was
constructed, and the realization of
that purpose in the near future is as
sured.
Call slide material which reaches
the canal must OF course, be removed
at certain expense and inconveni-
ences. The engineers estimate that
about 100000 cubic yards will have
to be removed between the two Guile
bra slides: and the dredges can re-
But it must not be supposed that the
canal will remain closed for nine
months; as soon as the channel has
beene sufficiently deepened and the
movement of the slides become so low
that the dredges even when interrupt
er by the passage of ships, can more
than keep pace with them, the canal
may be opened for navigation. This
time is probably not far off
'eThe committee believes that some !
sliding ground will continue to enter
the canal for several years to come, |
though in diminishing AMOUNTS. Any |
relatively inexpensive measures which |
tend to arrest the present active slides |
or which promise to reduce the charge !
against maintenance of the canal in |
the future are therefore fully war;
ranted.
THE composition of the rocks, their
structural weakness and earthquakes
are all instrumental in producing the |
slides, are beyond the control of man, |
but partial control of ground and
rain water and the relief of pressure
by unloading certain areas are FEAST
Bile and the committee confines its
remedial suggestions to these meas
ures.
'.The slides in the canal zone are
essentially like many in other parts
of the world; they are due to the in
ability of the earth or rock to support
the weight of everything material.
Slow processes of natural erosion, rap
id cutting by flooded streams and ex-
cavations by man frequently load to |
IeandsIides. Much of the canal is
cut through weak rocks; and in the
Cu1ebra district the prism is excep
tionally deep.
''The rocks of CuIebra district are
of two kinds-stratified and massive.
The chief material involved in the
nation. Tt is composed of slippery
which are only weakly con-
soHdated. The Cucaracha beds are
limited, along the line of the canal,
to the Culebra district but they have
a thickness in places of over 400 feet.
The soft slippery nature of its ma
terials and their loose. unconsolidated
condition, make it unusually weak and
unable to sustain any considerable
load.
'"The strength of the Cucaracha
cIays is greatly decreased by the pres
ence of water, and the heavy tropical
rains keep them nearly saturated the
greater part of the year; for the
broken and irregular surface of the
slides and the open cracks around
their borders greedily drink in the
water that falls upon them.
''In the Culebra district the average
since 1874 has been 87.68 in
|
ches falls in the rainy season of about
eight months. Where nearly seven
feet of water fall upon the surface of
the country within eight months of
the year, it is ot-surprising that there
is difficulty in controlling the under
ground seepage Indeed burning these
months the ground water table is
practically at the surface, except
possibly on the sleeper slopes; and the
of the underground water
is so slow that even in the dry sea-
son the water table is not far from
the surface in the level country.
"a consideration of the earthquakes |