REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


 I regard the sea-level canal, according to the project of the majority of the consulting board, as affording greater immunity from hostile injury in time of war than a canal of high level with several locks.
 The danger of a vessel being sunk in the canal is inherent in both; in a less degree in the lock canal because of a portion of its length being lake navigation, but a derangement of the operating mechanism of the locks or the direct crippling of a few of the gates is much more easily accomplished, and would ordinarily prove a far greater calamity and one far less quickly and easily remedied.
 In both projects locks occur at the side of Sosa Hill, near the shores of Panama Bay, a flight of two locks in the high-level plans and one tidal lock in the sea-level plans. Both are equally subject to destruction by a hostile fleet, but such destruction, in the case of the high-level canal, would be extremely disastrous, in that it would ruin the canal for military or commercial purposes for several years; whilst in the case of the sea-level canal the dbris could be dynamited and removed in a few days and the canal remain navigable, since for at least one-half of each twenty-four hours the tidal lock always stands open for the passage of vessels without locking, and during neap tides, which extend over one-half of the month, when the rise and fall are least, it would allow of the continous transit of vessels in an emergency without the offices of a lock.
 Again, the transit of a fleet of naval vessels, or an expeditionary force of army transports under convoy of a fleet, would be able to move with much more expedition than if compelled to pass through a lock canal. A war vessel acting singly could pass through the canal and proceed at once upon its way, but the movements of a fleet would probably be in unison, and in the case of a fleet of transports under convoy such would almost inevitably be the case, and the departure of the whole force would be delayed until the last vessel had made its exit from the canal. In the case of the lock canal this would cover a delay extending from the time the first vessel passed the last lock until the fiftieth, or some other last vessel corresponding to the numerical size of the fleet; whilst in the case of a sea-level canal for one half the hours of the twenty-four during one-half of the month, and for all the hours of the twenty-four during the other half the vessels would file through in rapid succession without locking. A transit which in the lock canal would take several days might, in the sea-level canal, be a matter of hours id less than a single day.
 In military affairs tremendous consequences often hang about the question of time; and when to the inevitable delays to a fleet passing through a lock canal is added the danger of the latter being entirely disabled for a long- period, the great advantage of a sea-level canal over a lock canal from a military view is strongly emphasized.
 There is no question that a sea-level canal is per se far superior in all respects to a lock canal, and where feasible and the cost not prohibitive it should be constructed. One is entirely feasible at the Isthmus of Panama and the cost estimated by the board of consulting engineers or by the Commission is not prohibitive.
 The time necessary for the construction of a sea-level canal is esfimated at twelve to thirteen years by the majority of the Consulting Board and not less than fifteen by the minority, in which latter estimate I concur, and which I do not regard as militating against the advisability of adopting such type.
 The great cost to transform a high-level lock canal into a sea-level canal as estimated by the Consulting Board--about $209,000,000-and the difficulties of the same render it impracticable. A sea-level canal reached by this method would cost at least $340,000,000.
 An 85-foot summit lock canal once constructed means a lock canal always. If a sea-level canal is desired, it must be built directly without first building a lock canal.
 Believing that a sea-level canal substantially according to the project of the Consulting Board would best serve the present and future commerce of the world and the military necessities of this nation, I have the honor to recommend its adoption.
 Respectfully submitted. MORDECAI T. ENDICOTT.


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