REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


 This is given as about 500 square miles, but this figure might be advisedly verified, as there appears to be no complete record of the run-off of the Chagres and its tributaries below Bohio, and the correct area would afford a fair method of estimating, using the coefficients established where the areas and run-offs are both known.
 S. Topography and borings on the alternative locations of the(a) Chagres River dikes.
 (b) Mindi dike.
 (c) La Boca dike.
 (d) Mindi lock.
 (e) Panama lock.
 (f) By-pass at Pedro Miguel lock (project B).
 9. Data for the classification and estimate of quantities for projects A and B.
 10. Data regarding the filling and other work required to raise the grade of the Panama Railway above the lake level.
 I beg to express my appreciation of the considerate action of the Committee, and trust that what is not found in the file it will be possible to secure sufficient at least for practical purposes.
 Very respectfully,

 Rear-Admiral MORDECAI T. ENDICOTT,
 Vice-C chairman, Engineering Committee,
 Isthmian Canal Commission, Washington, D. C.


 There is just one thing open: Which of a dozen sites is the best for the dam which closes the old lower channel of the Rio Chagres? This site for a Morison type of dam can be picked out irn a fortnight's work, if only there exists the official will to do it.
 Therefore the projects of the speaker are not to be pigeonholed because some one has said to the Chairman of the Commission that it would take a year to get the information which it was merely remarked was interesting, but, see you, never stated was in any degree vital.
 In the past six months, although thousands of copies of the first monograph (as there will be of this last) have been sent in this country and the world over to engineers, technical journals, ship and navy men, bankers, diplomats, Congressmen, and Senators, etc., there is yet to come a single serious attempt at criticism. There has been and there can be no successful controverting of the correctness of the principles on which the projects are based; there can only be differences of detail as to sites and structures, wherein there is room for infinite variety and abundant field for the specialist.
 Before reverting to any explanations the speaker begs to state that he apprehends that the absence of any comparative analysis of the 130-foot project from his discussion may be remarked.
 If he should have formally incorporated it he utterly misjudges the temper, the purpose, and the aspiration of the people of America; of the reliance of the substantial honored Motherland, of the Fatherland too, both with a greater preponderance of ships than we Americans like to seemisjudges also the real ideal of the most precious nation, artistic France, and the temperate and tenacious wisdom of the water-schooled men of Holland. He has not believed that anyone wanted a high-level canal, although his study of such possibilities has been made, which is here briefly contributed to the record of this hearing:

 NEW MATTER-PROJECT B".
 ]Levels.-33.5, 138.5, 26.5.
 Locks.-Mindi, Gatun, Bohio, Santa Cruz, Pedro Miguel, and Sosa; total, 8.
 Lake-making dams.-Mindi, Chagres, Gatun, Bohio, Santa Cruz, La Boca.
 Lakes.-Chagres-Mindi to Gatun; Gatun-Gatun to Bohio; Bohio-Bohio to Santa Cruz; Obispo-Santa Cruz to Pequeni Junction; Panama-Pedro Miguel to Sosa-Ancon.
 Requlating darns.-Above Alhajuela, Caflo, Santa Cruz by-pass, Pedro Miguel by-pass, Bohio, Gatun, and Mindi barrages.
 Premise.-To reduce the volume of the central pass pertaining either to project A, B, or B', a higher summit level must be created.
 An examination for possible dam sites shows several points between San Pablo and Obispo which may be considered, but the best is just below the mouth of the Rio Obispo.


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