SOMETHING ABOUT THE CANAL.
"Suppose you tell us what you know about Panama and the canal?" remarked
Tubby to Rob as the three boys perched in the bow of the _Caribbean_,
three days out, watching the flying fish as the vessel's prow sent them
scattering like coveys of birds from big patches of yellow gulf weed.
"Yes, that's a good idea," supplemented Merritt, "I guess we won't get
much time to study books down there. Mr. Mainwaring said this morning
that, after he had given the work a preliminary look-over, he was going
to hunt for the source of that tributary of the Chagres that he thinks is
responsible for the big floods every rainy season."
"Well, I don't suppose I know much more about it than you two fellows
do," rejoined Rob modestly, "but I've been reading up on it."
Here he looked at Tubby, who had done nothing much on the steamer but
consume three huge meals a day, with "snacks" in between, and amuse
himself. One of these amusements had been stuffing some of those
odd-looking pills known as "Pharaoh's Serpents" into the captain's pipe.
Almost every boy can guess what happened when the glowing tobacco reached
the "Serpents" and big, wriggly, writhing things began to climb out of
the pipe bowl.
"Ach himmel, der sea serpent," yelled the skipper, who was a German.
"Oh-h-h-h-h-h!" screamed a lot of ladies to whom he happened to be
talking.
It was just at this juncture that the captain had caught sight of Tubby
doubled up with laughter behind a ventilator. He chased and captured the
fat youth, who then and there received a spanking for which he got no
sympathy, even from his fellow Scouts. Except for spilling "sneezing
powder" in the main dining room at dinner time and burning an old
gentleman's bald head by sun rays concentrated in a magnifying glass,
Tubby had done nothing out of the way since.
"Fire away. Unload your knowledge," ordered Merritt, luxuriously
stretching out under the awning.
"All right, here goes. To begin at the beginning, of course you know that
Panama was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502."
"Ginger snaps!" interrupted Tubby. "Is there anything, except Coney
Island, that he didn't discover?"
"Shut up, can't you," cried Merritt indignantly. "Go on, Rob, it's just
the nature of the beast. Never mind him."
"Well," resumed Rob, "Columbus discovered the Chagres River and sailed up
it. He called the beautiful harbor by which he entered it Porto Bello.
Then came Balboa, who was the first to cross the Isthmus and view the
Pacific. It was about this time that a road was built across and the city
of Panama founded on the Pacific side. It was from Panama that Pizarro
set out to begin his brutal campaign which ended in the practical
extinction of the Incas of Peru."
"Oh, cut out the history and let's get down to the canal," muttered
Tubby; "I hate history, anyhow."
"It's my belief that you like nothing but eating," declared Merritt
indignantly.
"And sleeping," put in Tubby without a smile.
"The road was fifty miles long and well paved and provided with
substantial bridges, some of which are yet standing although the road is
almost impassable," went on Rob. "It was the war between Mexico and Uncle
Sam in 1846-47 that brought about a change. But in the meantime, I forgot
to tell you that old Panama was sacked by Captain Henry Morgan and his
pirates in 1671, great stores of gold taken and the inhabitants put to
the torture. The city was never rebuilt, but its ruins still stand some
miles from the site of the present city."
"Well, what happened in the Mexican war?" asked Tubby.
"I'm coming to that. At that time there were not more than 9,000 miles of
railroad in America, and it was a hard matter to get as far west as
Chicago by rail.
"Between the East and the Pacific Coast lay great prairies, practically
unexplored. Indians were thickly scattered over this region and very
hostile to the white man. The journey across took months. The lack of a
short route to the Pacific coast set everybody to thinking. Then, in
1849, came the great gold rush to California. Hundreds of miners went by
way of the Isthmus, but there was no railroad and they got sick, and many
of them died on the way across. It became clear that there must be a
railroad and, at last, in 1855, after unheard of difficulties had been
mastered, one was completed with American capital.
"From the first it paid tremendously, in the space of forty-seven years
making $38,000,000 of clear profit for its projectors. But to build that
forty-eight miles of track had cost 2,000 recorded human lives, five
years of labor, and $8,000,000."
"First history, then a railroad year book, and now, I suppose, we'll get
down to the canal," grunted Tubby.
"Yes, that's coming now," smiled Rob. "In the first place, the idea of
building a canal across the narrow strip of land forming the Isthmus had
been a dream even of the early Spaniards. Then a Scotchman founded a
colony which was to grow rich on the products of the Isthmus and also dig
a canal. Disease and failure soon put an end to this enterprise. In fact,
from the earliest days Panama and the Isthmus have always been known as
one of the most unhealthy spots on earth. As you may know, it is only
nine degrees north of the equator, and the rainy season lasts more than
half the year. But nowadays, with modern medicine and modern hygienic
methods, it is quite safe, with reasonable care, to penetrate the jungle.
Mr. Mainwaring told me that," he added.
"Well, after various schemes had been gotten up and had fallen through, a
French company, backed by the money of almost everyone in France who
could by hook or crook secure stock, in 1882 turned the first shovelful
of earth for a canal. It was to have been a sea-level one, that is, one
without locks, and was projected and engineered by Ferdinand De Lesseps,
the aged builder of the Suez canal.
"We know now that a sea-level canal would not be feasible on the Isthmus.
It would take too long to build and cost a prohibitive sum, almost double
what a lock canal costs. For seven years digging went on, with fearful
loss of life among the laborers and engineers from yellow fever. Then, in
1899, it was discovered that almost half of the $400,000,000 raised had
been squandered in mismanagement and waste, and by far the larger part
had gone in what we should nowadays call 'graft'. An investigation was
made. Several of the promoters of the canal committed suicide, and De
Lesseps went mad and died in an asylum. Such was the tragic history of
the French era; but brighter days were to come.
"It was in 1898 when the _Oregon_ made her record run from San Francisco
to join the Atlantic fleet in the West Indies and fight the Spaniards off
Cuba, that Americans began to think that a short cut was needed. With our
acquisition of the Philippines, a 'door' between the Pacific and Atlantic
was declared to be almost a necessity. There was much discussion at
Washington, but finally in 1903 President Roosevelt and Congress decided
that if we could purchase from the French all they had left at Panama and
could, in addition, buy a strip or 'zone' across the Isthmus for canal
building purposes, it would be fitting and right for the United States to
take up the work.
"After some dickering, the French company, took $40,000,000 for what they
owned, and, in 1904, the Panama Republic, a newly created nation, sold
the United States for $10,000,000 a strip of land ten miles wide and
fifty miles long, which strip of land is now known as the Canal Zone.
"The first thing that the Americans did after they took hold was to start
a campaign against disease. No canal could be dug while yellow fever had
to be reckoned with. Under the masterly hand of Col. W. C. Gorgas, the
Zone has been cleaned up till disease is almost rarer than in cities of
the north. Mosquitoes have been wiped out, streets paved, filth and
garbage, which used to lie and rot under the hot sun, all swept away, and
good comfortable houses put up for workmen and their bosses. The men who
stand the climate best among the laborers are Jamaican negroes. Hindus,
Italians and Spaniards are also employed for lighter work, but for
'making the dirt fly' the Sambo is the real thing.
"Anything else you'd like to know?"
"Well, yes," said Merritt. "Just why is this Chagres River such an
important part of the canal?"
"Well, it's this way, as I understand it," said Rob. "In the first place,
the canal is fifty miles long,--forty-one miles through the land and nine
miles of channel dredged out in the harbors of Colon and Panama. From
Colon to Bah Bohia the route passes for twelve miles through low, swampy
ground not much above sea level. Then it cuts into the hills and is
practically a more or less shallow ditch as far as a place called
Miraflores, nine miles away. The highest point of land that the canal
must traverse is Gold Hill, at the famous Culebra, where it is 662 feet
above the sea level.
"But right here occurs a 'saddle' through which the canal must run. This,
at its lowest point, is 312 feet above sea level. Right here is the
notorious Culebra Cut, which is an immense excavation nine miles long
and, in places, more than three hundred feet deep in solid rock,--think
of that!
"Bad as Culebra has been as an obstacle, however, the Chagres River is
worse. For 23 miles the canal must follow the valley of this river and
cross and recross its bed. The Chagres is an unruly stream. At times it
is small, and then again it swells to tremendous size, sweeping all
before it and causing great floods. To build the canal the problem was to
turn the Chagres into a friend, instead of an enemy, and that, it is
believed, has been done in an unique way.
"You must now roughly picture a cross section of the canal route as a
flat-topped pyramid. Suppose the top of the pyramid to be hollow and that
through that hollow flows the Chagres River. Well, on one side of your
cup or hollow is the famous Gatun Dam, in the construction of which
2,250,000 barrels of cement have been used. Below the Gatun Dam is a
'flight,' just like a succession of steps of locks. These will be used to
lower vessels from the 'cup' at the top to the Atlantic level,--or to
raise them, as the case may be.
"On the other end of the cup, on the Pacific end that is, will be another
flight of locks, the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, which will raise
or lower vessels from and to the Pacific. Is that clear? There's a big
cup at the top of our pyramid, and steps, or 'locks,' lead down to the
levels of the oceans on each side."
"Oh, it's as clear as mud," muttered Tubby, "go on."
"Now, then, we get to the Chagres and the part it plays," went on Rob
serenely. "That whole 'cup' at the top of our pyramid is actually an
artificial lake of vast size. As a matter of fact, it will be 165 square
miles in area. At Gatun a great dam will hold it in, and at Pedro Miguel
the locks will perform the same office. This lake is the valley of
Chagres, and the Chagres will be relied on to keep it filled. This
immense Gatun Lake, as it is called, is the 'keystone' of the canal. Any
weakness in the Gatun Dam would ruin the whole project. You can see, of
course, why this is so, because the water in that Gatun Lake will be
relied upon to fill the locks which will raise vessels up or down."
"But suppose the Chagres River cuts up ugly, as you said it does
sometimes?" asked Merritt.
"Well," said Rob, "I heard Mr. Mainwaring say that the great lake will be
so big that a flood would affect its level no more than a cup of water
poured into a bath tub. The river will merely serve to keep the lake
filled and supply the water needed to work the locks."
"That's a very good description, Master Rob," said a voice at their
elbows.
They started and looked up, and there was Mr. Mainwaring himself looking
down at them.
"We have changed the Chagres from a dangerous enemy into an excellent
friend," he said, "but, as Rob pointed out, the Gatun is unavoidably the
spot at which an enemy who wished to harm us could do almost
irretrievable damage at the expenditure of a few dollars' worth of
dynamite, if," he paused for an instant, "if he knew just where to place
it."
"Does anyone possess such knowledge?" asked Rob.
"Yes, anyone possessing a duplicate of my plans would know just how to
set about dealing the canal a fearful blow," was the slow response.
Rob's pulses beat fast and thick. He caught his breath. Jared had such
duplicate plans, and was in the hands of men who could work on his weak
nature to give them up. He glanced up at Mr. Mainwaring, expecting to see
signs of anxiety on his face. But the engineer was perfectly calm.
"After all that 'dry history,' as Tubby called it," said he, with a
smile, "let's go and play shuffle board. Fred is waiting for us."