THE PANAMA CANAL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13847, 9 March 1907, Page 14

THE PANAMA CANAL.

AN* INTERESTING PAPER. (Fkoh Oun Own ConREsrosDEXT.) LONDON', January 26. Before the Socioty o[ Arts on Wednesday evening, a paper 'entitled "Tho Panama Oaiiid: the Look Canal Tvpo and tho Strait of Panama. Type" was read bv _M. Philippe Bunau-Yarilla, formerly chief engineer of the Panama Cara.l Company, . M. Bumut-Varilla said that; the original fio'a leVol canal, the construction of which was undertaken by M. de Lnssaps, and the «ea level canal recently conceived bv the American (iovcrnmont and the Jetiunian Ca.na.l Commission were to lie intor-ooeanic waterways with an invariable level communication with the Atlantic and closed at 1 ho' Pacific end bv locks. Three looks were io prevent tho Paeifio lidos from causing in the canal currents interfering with navigation. lie, hoivovor, 1i:kI suggested an open waterway from ocean to ocean, which ho called the "Strait of Panama," ard he submitted it io tho International Board of Consulting Engineers, assembled at Washington hy President Roosevelt in September, 1905. This had no locks, but communicated freely with the Atlantic and tho Pacific. If. was to be 500 ft wide at the bottom, 45ff deep at the lowest tides, and on the average 000 ft broad at the waterline. This waterway would be three times broader and one-fourth deeper than the t widest and deepest, canal ever conceived across the Isthmus of Panama. There was no appreciable diti'erence between the average level of iho two oocaiis, and ihero could not bo currents _ iu the Strait of Panama more inconvenient to navigation than thoso of' the Seine or the Thames. The Isthmian Canal Commission estimated the cost of the soa-lovel- canal at £60.000,000, and the time for it 6 execution at from 20 to 22 years. The commission also considered that it would l:o nccessarv (o spend 1180,099,000 on tho "strait" sclicnvo and Io wait for 60 or 70 years, to see the first vessel pa®' through it. But this commission j like, all the other commissions that had discussed tho Panama Ctma-I, had forgotten one thing. This was the essential question the' mode of cxeeut ion. All those commissions had taken it for granted that tho canal would be excavatedl in the dry. Tito excavation in the dry .was not tho only mode of execution. It was tho worst and more expensive one. With the excavation on water by dredges, transportation of the soil by barges, and dumping in deep water all' the isthmian difficulties vanished as if they had hen touched by a magiean's wand. The carriage power of water was unlimited, and tile most powerful ensiiics for c.xcavation might lis employed without .any drawback. This meant the employment of fewer men and more machinery. It might bo said that however groat might be the cconomy in tho excavation of tlio loose ground by tho dredge, the removal of Iho submerged rocks would prove an insurmountable obstacle to his scheme. Tho roek-dcst.royer invented by Lombitz for tho Suez Canal, consisting of a heavy steel chisel, ending in a movable point, rcduccd tho hardest rocks into pieces the size of a man's head. Ha contended that excavation on water was throe times more powerful and three times more economical than work in tho dry,, while it really was 16 times more so in a loose soil and.four times more so in a rocky soil. Thus, it would not cost more money or more time'to make the "strait" by dredging than to make tlie narrow soalovel canal closed by tidal locks with excavators in the dry. - But his system was rejected l)y the. consulting board. Yet the rat-iona.l utilisation of tho topography and dynamios of Panama allowed of the easy and low-priced execution of tho hitherto chimerical, work of tlio-strait across tlio isthmus. Ho estimated that the work would occupy ten years and a-half. and that the cost, at tlio most- liberal allowance, would 1» £;0.033,000; moro prokablv the total expense would he limited to £20,000.000that was one-ninth of .what the excoution of this gigantic conccpiion would post in the dry. Moreover, under his scheme a ieok canal with a summit level of 130 ft elevation would have been created without srrent. effort, and in a short space of time, between the oceans, while Iho dredging for tho execution of the strait was being advanced..

Sines tho American Government purchased the canal in 1904 they had met only with bitter surprises. The general cau^e of the failure of iho Americans in tlio execution of tho work was chic to their ignorance of the injurious influence of the rains on the excavations in the dry in the tropics. Tho American engineers bad refused to take into account I lie necessary system of ovcawti'"* on water. which appeared to him as the final teaching of tho hitter experiences of the okl Panama Company. Kither tboy did Jiot know or would not understand tho philosophy of this great problem, but. the wa.y was opened up before them to • realise in four years a lock canal communication between the oceans, and 11 years later tho " Strait of Panama," if tho great question were examined in a purely scientific spirit. Everything had bee.ll prewired by Nature for hydraulic pmver to lift tho earth and the rocks which obstructed the site of itho strait. Hornws this_ power, and tho strait would he made l>y its spontaneous action.