The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-04-28
THE PANAMA CANAL
Why It Will Not Again be Closed by
Any Big Slides.
Any Big Slides.

ing practice and precedents rather
than those that the Canal Biologists
recommended and urged should be the
ones at which to stop steam shovel
excavation. This engineers opinion
influenced General Goethals until the
time came, as it did, when the Cen
eral found that he had to take per-
sonal charge Of the excavation work
in the Cluebra Cut. When he did this,
and, in actual charge, came to see
more in detail the recommendations
the geologist had been making, he
adopted them as far as the limits of
time and the advanced condition of
the whole work then made possible.
Since that time General Goethals has
taken genuine interest in the sugges-
tions that experienced biologists have
been able to offer after a study of
local conditions. This attitude toward
practical biologists means much for
their future work with civil engineers
engaged in tasks in any way similar
to the problems of canal excavation.
The vindication of the work of the
Canal Goologist during the last four
or five years made by these expert
ments has called into notice here the
fact that it was the Engineers of the
Dredging Division, not Geologist Nc
Donald that fixed the approximate
date Of the last of November last as
the time when channel, say 125 feet
wide, would be cleared through the
sliding ground.
When Mr.. Mcdonald, in October,
ID IS e
slides during a stay here of day, he
asked the Canal engineers when they
could get narrow channel through
the mass Of earth and rock that was
then completely barring the canal.
They answered, 1.-TWO weeks" where
upon Mr.. Mcdonald said to the cor
respondent of the New York World,
that if such channel "could be put
through by about the last week in
November" so as to give the dredges
and scows a chance properly and eff
fectively to attack the slide, the chan
mel could probably be kept open and
gradually enlarged to normal size in
spite Of the sliding movement.
Mr.. Mcdonald said there might be
some possible chance that the channel
would again be closed temporarily
during the next three or four months,
but that when the material then NOV
ing had been brought under control
by dredging, no new slide that would
close the Canal channel would occur"
"as long as Gabriel's trumpet re-
manned unsounded." The dredging
engineers did not have narrow chan
mel cleared through the sliding mater
ial on the last of November only be-
cause of an unexpected breakdown to
an important dredge. They did, how
ever, repair the dredge and have
channel through the mass closing the
Canal within ten days after the date
they had first fixed.
The Governor of the Canal is not
permitting ships except those of the
Canal and the Navy, to go through the
channel, because passage interiors
with the dredging, and because, as
Geologist Mcdonald suggested, there
is remote possibility of another tenn
porary closing of the channel should
heavy rains or other unexpected con-
ditions occur, before such time as the
dredges have removed all the material
that has been menacing. After this
has been removed, and this is not a
great quantity, according to the way
quantities are measured on the Ca
nal, although it is known that small
slides will occur for some years to
come, no slide that will close the Ca
nal can occur.
HAMILTON FOLEY,
in panama News Letter."