Notes of the Day.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, 1 August 1912, Page 4

Notes of the Day.

THE STOR Y OF THE PANAMA CANAL IN A NUTSHELL.

The Panama Canal will bo fifty miles long from deep water m the Pacific to deep water in the Atlantic. From shore fine to shore Ime trio length is forty miles. In going through it the vessels enter Limon Bay a magnificent harbor, and steam thence through the first Atlantic stretch, which is seven miles long, to Gatun. The ship is still on the level of the Caribbean sea when it gets to Gatun, but there it meets the great locks, which, filled by the Chagres, lift it 85 feet into Gatun lake. In the lake itself the steamer may pass at full speed to the entrance to the Culebra cut, and the same level is maintained until you roach the other end of that cut at Pedro MigueleThere the vessel enters a. lock and drops about the height of a threestorey house into a small lake, which is about 55 feet above &ea level. That lake is to be- made, but it will be a mile and a half long and 55 feet above the sea. At the end of the lake there are two more locks, one above the other, which successively drop it from the height of a five-storey flat to the channel' and on to the level of the Pacific ocean. Our ship is now onlyeight and a half miles from the ocean itself, and is ready to steam off to China, Japan, Australia, or anywhere else in the Pacific. That is the story of the canal in a nutshell, but its one which many do not understand. Wo hear a great deal, for example, about the bringing the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific together. , They do not come together, and if they did they would have to flow uphill t-o a height of So feet. The saltwaters have but little to do with moving the ships from ocean to ocean. It is the fresh water of the Chagres River that does the work. Many of the tourists, and even some of the writers about the canal who have made their way to Colon, show an ignorance which is colossal. The other dav a lady correspondent from the Middle "West of the United States was sent down to spend a week and write a dozen newspaper letters. She interviewed every one, including the secretary of the Commission who, during the talk, happened to mention De Lesseps. “De Lesseps?” said the girl. “Who was De Lesseps, anyhow? Everyone is talking about .lie Lesseps. Oh ! I remember now! He was the man who discovered the Isthmus of Panama.”