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TABLE showing the lengths of the reaches and their respective levels: N.B. The datum or zero level is the mean level of the sea.

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From the Drawings accompanying this paper, Plates I & II have

been prepared.

DISCUSSION.

In answer to various questions propounded by Messrs. Hannaford, J. Kennedy, Peterson, Parent and Prof. Bovey, Mr. Deniel replied as follows:

By the first January, 1888, the amount of excavation completed ranged between 30 and 40 millions of cubic yards, and there were still about 150 millions cubic yards to be removed; roughly speaking, about onefourth of the work had been done.

Probably no one really knew the total cost of the work remaining to be finished, as it was very difficult to make an estimate.

He thought that the difficulty of completion did not lie in the work itself, but in the matter of raising the money. The great mistake made by the promoters had been in beginning the work with a small capital, about $60,000,000, whereas their liabilities had already reached some $300,000,000.

He considered that $100,000,000 would be sufficient to finish the work, which would undoubtedly stand, as there would be no danger from freshets, and the canal would only be destroyed by an earthquake The work was superintended by the Panama Canal Co., which had. given contracts to the following firms:

Société de Travaux Publics et Constructions, 15 rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris.

MM. Vignaud, Barbaud, Blanleuil & Cie., 19 rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris.

MM. Baratoux, Letellier & Cie., 4 rue de Rome, Paris.

MM. Artigue, Sonderegger & Cie., 1 rue de la Bourse, Paris.

M. Jacob, 11 Place du Commerce, Nantes.

The works,

The American Contracting & Dredging Company, New York. The canal is divided into five divisions; each one under the charge of a divisional engineer and staff, appointed by the Company. The first division runs from Colon to kilometer 26-35. principally dredging, are carried out by the American Contracting & Dredging Co., for the canal, and by Mr. Jacob, for the deflections of the Rio Chagres on the left bank of the canal.

The second division runs from kilometer 2635% to kilometer 44. The contractors are MM. Vignaud, Barbaud, Blanleuil & Cie. Their plant consists of excavators, conveyors, dredges, large and small dumping

cars, etc. The steam excavators and conveyors do not do as much work as was expected of them. They do not work much more than one-third of the time, while the negroes work at least two thirds.

The third division runs from kilometer 44 to kilometer 5300 There lies the heaviest part of the work. The contractors are the Société de Travaux Publics et Constructions. They use very large and heavy plant, steam excavators, broad gauge railways, etc.

The fourth division runs from kilometer 53% to kilometer 57. The contractors are MM. Artigue, Sonderegger & Cie. This division, as the preceeding one, is mainly through rock cutting, and the plant employed is of the same description in both cases. The work here is carried on day and night with the aid of the electric light.

1000

The fifth division runs from kilometer 57 to kilometer 74, 5%% in Panama Bay. It is under contract with MM. Baratoux, Letellier & Cie., and it is mainly dredging. In the Panama Bay the material dredged was very soft, and consequently the work has been easy, but the sand for a long time kept running into the cut in such quantity that once, during a whole week, one of the elevator dredges employed there was kept at work on the same spot, its buckets coming up full all the time. Consequently the width of the cut in the Bay of Panama is considerably larger than elsewhere. However, this portion of the work, that is, from deep water to La Boca, is now completed to the full depth and width.

The heavy plant, comprising dredges, excavators, cars, rails, engines, dwelling houses, etc., belongs to the Panama Canal Company, and is rented by the contractors, who furnish only the small tools, such as picks, shovels, crow-bars, drills, etc.

The deepest cut is at the Culebra. On the centre line, it measures there 107 metres above canal bottom, but the left side of the cut starts from a point 70 metres higher, near the summit of the Cerro Culebra, and at a distance of 189,84 metres from the centre line. By the adoption of the new plan, the depth will be reduced to about 180 feet on the centre line. The centre line of the new canal will be the same as at present, but the locks will be located either on the right or on the left of it, in order to interfere as little as possible with the contemplated subsequent deepening and widening.

The Cerro Culebra is a hill of some height. It does not slide bodily towards the canal as it has been wrongly reported, but sinks, and produces heavings in the canal, and occasional slidings. This, however, could not go on for ever, as the core of the mountain is made of rock;

it would have to stop some time, but till then, there was nothing to do but to keep removing the material. These heavings were at one time so sudden that it in the morning, the excavators, cars, rails, etc., were frequently found on a considerably higher level than that on which they had been left on the previous evening, and, of course, more or less damaged.

He thought, however, that the trouble would soon stop; there was not as much movement as there had been. In consequence of these disturbances, the cross sections had had to be extended 3 or 4 hundred feet beyond the summit of the slope, in order to have at least an approximate idea of the quantity of material removed by the contractors. There are bench-marks built of masonry on both sides of the canal, and these are checked by similar bench-marks built along the line of the Panama Railroad.

The idea of the high dam has been given up, but there will still be one of some 80 feet in height (see page 5).

The work in the deflections was not different from the work in the canal, nor did it entail any more difficulty.

The Panama Canal Co. does not do any of the work, but gives it out to the large contractors who generally sublet it to smaller companies. The work is measured up by the engineers of the Panama Canal Co., and by the engineers of the contractors, always acting together and checking each other. One source of delay in the progress of the works has been in the periodical freshets of the rivers, especially of the Chagres. The custom was to give a sub-contractor either one deflection or a length of canal comprised between two bends of the river. The operations usually begin about the middle of December and continue until about the middle of May, when the rainy season sets in. Naturally the sub-contractors make use of the bed of the Chagres as a spoiling ground; the river carries to the sea part of the spoil, but not the whole of it, and when it rises, it carries back part of it into the canal and the speaker has seen railway tracks buried under six feet of earth.

The speaker is not well posted on the financial position of the company, nor as to its expectations, but he has read that the transoceanic traffic had been estimated at 6,000,000 tons annually. The Canal Company, according to its charter, is allowed to charge 15 francs or $3 per ton, and at these figures it would have an income of $18,000,000 per year. This seemed reasonable, but it is well to understand that the ton at the Panama Canal is not the same as elsewhere. In France, for instance, the official tonnage of a sailing ship is obtained by

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