WATERS OF PACIFIC.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13191, 27 September 1913, Page 11

WATERS OF PACIFIC.

ENTER GREAT CANAL. | PANAMA, Sept. 2. The last remaining barrier at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal was blown up by dynamite yesterday morning. At 9 o'clock an electric switch was turned on and hundreds of tons of mud and stones were thrown high m the air as the thunderous roar of the explosion re-echoed m the nearby hills. About twenty long tons, equivalent to 44,800 pounds of 45 per cent, dynamite, constituted the blast, which was one of the largest ever p-S off m the canal. The charge, wlV..ii was planted m 541 holes at an average depth of thirty feet, tore a big gap m the barrier, but not to a sufficient depth'to permit water to flow through, as the tide was low. Equally interesting as the explosion was the actual breaking through of the barrier m the afternoon, the tide creeping steadily up until at 1.35 o'clock it was level with the top of the gap. A workman seized a shovel and made a small trench, through which a rill of water trickled. Gradually it widened until an hour later a raging torrent, I with a 35ft fall, poured through an '■ opening 40Oft wide into that part of the canal „ between Gamboa dyke and the Mjraflores .locks, which previously had been excavated by steam shovels. j