A TRAVELLERS' OBSERVATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15033, 5 January 1911, Page 2

A TRAVELLERS' OBSERVATIONS

: DR CLBARY'S VISIT TO THE PANAMA CANAL. In his recent journeyings in Central America, the Rev. Dr Cleary visited the famous undertaking, now in progress, of making a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. This is what he told a Daily Tiimee reporter on Tuesday night about his visit to the locality: — "In regard to the Panama Canal, the works are being carried out with an organisation, a fever of energy, and a mechanical skill which loaves little doubt upon my mind that the hope of the engineers, expressed to me on the spot, will be amply fulfilled—namely, that this great work will be ready to be utilised by the world's shipping- by 1915.

"It is somewhat of a diappointment to the traveller to note that there is comparatively little _ oanal work to ho seen beyond the long lines marking the sea channel into the new port of Panama, the cuttings eonneoting that channel for same miles with the great da.m on the southern or Pacific end, the vast wofks of the Gatun dam— the biggest construction of its kind in oxistenco—and the works connecting that dam with the Atlantic side of the canal. The vastly greater part of the Panama Canal is to consist of the great central inland lake over which shipping will be able to proceed at high rates of speed in. water of an average depth of close on 90ft.

"Among the many contrivances which most intimately interest the observer are the large steam shovels, lifting about a ton of earth at each, din, and the remarkably ingenious arrangement for the laying of long , sections of rails, bound up with their sleepers, in a few moments on ground previously prepared by the work of the navvy. At the Pacific entrance ono notices the great quantities of dredging and other material used by the Dβ Lesseps Company falling to pieces in decay in or near the water, and , , across the canal belt, great quantities of engines and rolling stock in a similar state of decay, festooned over with climbing plants and the wild fruit trees of the jungle. In reply to a casual query, one of the American engineore assured me that it would not have paid the present management of the canal to utilise any part of tho old equipment, eve " it had ,been kept in perfect order, on tint of its being eo much behind the new Ameri can machinery in efficiency and .'working power.

"Perhaps tho most striking feature of canal life is the almost total absence of the once-dreaded mosquito. This' has been effected by the drainage of swamp areas, the cutting of channels, and the treatment of stagnant water by crude oil or a preparation made up of crude oil, and, I think, creosote. In the early days of this experiment the houses of the officials had their verandahs, windows, doors, and balconies all covered over with imosquito-proof wire gauze in order to prevent the attacks of the malarial-bearing' anopheles. Nowadays, so perfectly has this work succeeded', these preparations would seem to be hardly necessary. I passed some time in Panama, sleeping, as many others did, with open windows in one of the leading hotels, and during my stay there I did not sea so much as a trace of a mosquito—in fact, hardly any fly life of any kind. A member of the Health Board assured me, jocularly, that if they heard of a mosquito appearing in any part of the belt south of the Gatun dam the whole force at the disposal of that body would 'light out' after it.

"The Jamaican negroes are generally employed in, connection with the manual work of the canal, acting throughout .under white suporvieion. When they have earned a certain amount of money they sometimes, go for , a holiday to their native island, strut about in gorgeous upholstery until their money is expended, and then readily fall in with the suggestions of the recruit ing officials to return once more to earn the big money that falls into the pockets of the dark-skinned navvy on the' Panama belt." THE TRANS-ANDEAN TUNNEL. Before leaving the Argentine Republic Dr Cleary madb a journey across the Andes into Chile, and saw the progress of another stupendous undertaking in the puny hands of man.' '', ' I ' "I epent some time,' he said, "in the Argentine Andes at Puente del Inca, a watering' place situated l 9000 ft above sealevel. I travelled! there along the narrow ■gauge ■ railway which runs from Mendoza and through the new trans-Andean tunnel into Chile. This railway is a remarkable achievement in its way. It winds through very wild and charming scenery, which is generally treeless and devoid of vegetation, with here and there a few fertile patches, or oa6es, of "green, where its scattered inhabitants have been, able to turn the wealthproducing mountain streams into the recoptivo soil of that region. In many places the gradient of the railway is so 6teep_ that it is necessary to have* recourse, to a.middle, or cogwheel, rail. In this way dopes _of quite remarkable steepness are dealt with, safety being secured by an elaborate and powerful system of brakes. At the time I passed through, the tunnel between the Argentine Republic and Chile had been completed. The tracks were laid, but the line through was not open, for passenger traffic, and I was one among the last of the passengers that passed over the cumbre. or saddle, of the Andes by the old and picturesquo mule-coaches which went zigzagging up the steep face of long hills, mounting ever-higher and higher until Ihey passed tho frontier mark of the Argentine Republic, touched the neutral ground on which stands the massive bronze figure of Christ, placed there to commemorate the treaty of peace between the two sister nations, and then past the Chilean frontier, when we began the steep and headlong descent which rune the passengers amidst clouds of dust into the little wood and iron shantiod town which then formed the railhead of the western slope."