Milford chronicle., 1922-12-15
Jungleland,
November 20, 1922.


Milford
Jungleland,
November 20, 1922.
Your letter received some time age
an, as you may know was glad to hea
from you and to know that you ar
still in the land of the living and en-
tering a spirited election. I see by tn
papers, that du Pont was defeated.
was sorry to hear that-but cues
the people know what they want ant
I believe in the majority ruling
Speaking of papers, we have one
printed daily in Panama city, half il
English and half in Spanish, about
four pages of each; but one can al
most read the Spanish as easily as the
English in so far as news goes. About
all the news it has is the Associated
Press news on the front page; and OF
course, any little incident can be de-
veloped into a column of reading mat
ter like, for instance: William Jen-
nings Bryan was down here for a day
or so last week, and spoke over in
Panama, at the high school in Girls
tobal, at the Rotary Club, at the Ho-
tel Washington, and that gave them a
lot of news. ], suppose we will be
reading about that for the next week.
We also get papers from the States
down here about once a week; hard
ly anything but the Sunday papers and
the Saturday Evening Post. The only
real live up-to-date news that we get
is from the Milford Chronicle; which
arrives by special messenger about
every seven or eight day. 1t was by
this medium that I learned there was
a Halloween parade in Milford, and
that a silk factory was to be built on
the banks of the Mispilion River and
lots of other news.
Speaking of the Mispilion River, I
will tell you Of trip we took yester-
day, down to the famous Chagress
River, to what is known here as the
lower Chagress. VIII Powders can
tell you something about it, as he has
probably been up it for a ways. The
Chagress rises away up in the inter-
Tor and flows towards the Atlantic
Ocean, or the Caribbean Sea it is
here; but, when the Canal was built,
in order to raise the water, dam was
built at Gatun, across the Chagress to
form Gatun Lake-thus raising the
upper Chagress and Gatun Lake about
81 feet higher than the lower Cha
gress; these waters are controlled by
a set of gates at the dam, known as
The Gatun Spillway. The upper Cha
gress is the main source Of supply for
water for the entire canal. OF course
here are other smaller rivers, and
Turing the rainy season when the wa
er gets too high, these gates at the
Spillway are opened and the surplus
Vater let into the lower Chagress and
N out to the caribbean Sea. A ship |
the canal from the Atlantic
nters and passes through three locks ]
t Gatun; each one lifting it about % |
eet, and after passing through the |
anal to the Pacific side, it passes {
through three locks at Pedro, Miguel t
nd Mirafores, which drop it down {
bout the same distance, according /
D the state Of the tide on that side; i
s the rise and fall of the tide is much G
reater on the Pacific side than on b
le Atlantic.
Well, now about our trip; we got d
7erything ready the night before and s
bout six o'clock the next morning D
e left in a f1fty-foot motor boat; 7
assing out through the breakwater, n
nd up the coast for a distance Of a
bout twelve miles. Just prior to ar Z
wing at the mouth of the Chagress, Il
1t out my fishing line and commence h
to trawl, using heavy line and a,
rye spoon hook. Just as we were ii
ltering the river got a strike and s.
,oked large skipjack. It was some a,
h, I won't say how large it was, but e.
am sending you picture of it, so st
IL can see for yourself; anyway it tt
ade dinner for ten healthy, hung tb
people. We got in the river and al
ID up to a cocoanut tree, put our tn
DIVISIONS ashore, with the fish; and, tr
there was a small house there and
ming water, it made a fine place dc
camp. There were plenty Of CO. so
anuts, so we had good cool milk lie;
: drinking purposes. Some of the in
rty decided they would stay and fix siC
a dinner, the balance Of us, took an
, boat and got underway for a trip da
the Chagress, leaving small row tb,
1t with the party at the camp. We in
Wled up the river, having a number me-
strikes, but did not succeed in til,
ding anything, as most Of us were tbs
y looking for wild monkey, alliga- '
3, and other various beasts, birds All,
reptiles, (as May calls them), an,
when we were almost up to the tbi
llWay, We hooked a large tarpon, viii
we had q time. It was easily four ing
long and they are very game. We eve
red It for quite a while, but it was
a small line and after getting it
-