REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


231


which leads to an expense of $15,000,000 for- the two flights of five locks, which, of course, will form a part of the unit price of excavation. Though it leads to a charge of about 12 cents at most per cubic yard on 110,000,000 cubic yards to be excavated below elevation 130 on the distance of the first summit level, a charge which will diminish with the amount of excavated ground passing by the locks, this expense is absolutely justified by the exceptional simplicity of the method of handling the spoils.
 I have thus established that the system of transformation recommended conforms well to the necessary conditions enumerated, and respects entirely the width of the standard channel, the time of the international navigation locks, and the water necessary for international transit.
 It remains f or me now only to speak of the character of the works to be prosecuted by dredging.

 SUBSTITUTION OF DREDGING FOR DRY EXCAVATING DURING THE PERIOD OF TRANSFORMATION.

 Outside of its general justification it may be asked if the proposed met hod of dredging is intrinsically better or worse than dry excavation. In other words, are the advantages of the transformation bought at the expense of a surplus of expenses or difficulties due to the method of excavating which results f romi the character of the transformation itself?

PRINCIPAL REASONS WHY THE WET METHOD IS 50 SUPERIOR TO THE DRY ONE FOR EXCAVATING ON THE ISTHMUS.

 In all countries of the world dredging is incomparably superior to dry excavation when the ground necessitates no mining. On the Isthmus of Panama this advantage is transformed into an enormous superiority. If there is an instrument of work which counterbalances as much as it is physically possible all the evil influences of the Isthmus it is the dredge. It counterbalances them because, first, it is the only excavating instrument where the white man can work without expense of physical energy, where he can work seated, so to speak, protected f rom ithe sun, protected from the rain. Second, because it is the only instrument where the colored man remains under immediate supervision, where he is attached to tasks always the same and under the eye of the overseer. Third, because it is the instrument least liable to suffer from an error or an accident. If a little slide comes it withdraws and is not buried as an excavator or a steam shovel. If the attack of the ground is too hard it simply Stops instead of risking to lose its equilibrium; it does not derail; it is free, and its work is not hampered by accidents incident to cars, locomotives, or tracks serving it in combination with other instruments of dry excavation.

DREDGING WAS PREFERRED TO OPEN-AIR ROCK EXCAVATION DURING THE OLD PANAMA COMPANY'S
 WORK, WITH MUCH LESS POWERFUL DREDGES THAN ARE NOW USED.

 Anybody who has worked on the Isthmus with the two systems can not but be struck with the enormous superiority of the dredge. It is so apparent, so obvious, that I did not hesitate at Culebra, as soon as the conditions became compatible with a dredging plant, to endeavor to substitute the work of the dredge for that of dry digging, and this in a hard clay that necessitated the employment of explosives for the work of excavating machines.

 THE SUSPENSION OF DREDGING AT CULEBRA A FATAL MISTAKE OF THE NEW PANAMA CANAL COMPANY.

 Unfortunately the plant was just in action when the collapse of the old company came; but, however small had been its period of activity, perhaps a couple of months, the result completely confirmed my expectations and fulfilled my hopes. Unfortunately for the canal, the inevitable and blind reaction which followed such a disaster as that of the Panama enterprise put into suspicion the clearest results obtained. I consider that it has been, among others, one of the most fatal mistakes of the New Panama Canal Company not to continue in the same line of effort. What they have done in the Culebra cut would have been infinitely cheaper and quicker done if they had followed my last plans and not simply continued dry excavations, which I had put in