REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


 Mr. STEVENS. I have not, Mr. Randolph; I guess I am the only man in the United States who has not.
 Mr. STEARNS. I would like to inquire about the slide. Do you know what was done by the French?
 Mr. STEVENS. We have a man in our employ that was here at the time. I have gone up there and found some drains, but I presume some of you gentlemen know more about that than I do.
 Mr. STEARNS. I noticed the lines of the drains on the plans, and I wondered if they were from the surface down, or some underground tunnels.
 Mr. STEVENS. I do not think there were any drains under the surface.
 Mr. STEARNS. Did they prove insufficient?
 Mr. STEVENS. Yes. The way the tunnel has got to be driven is to push in a one-man tunnel, say 5 feet by 6 feet, or 5 feet by 7 feet.
 Mr. STEARNS. Has it got to be built on clay?
 Mr. STEVENS. It depends. If the rock is pocket and filled with clay and the clay is impervious, you might follow on the clay. Generally speaking, the water comes on the surface, then it starts along the line of least resistance, and if the materials are all clay and rock, by a proper system of tunnels, I think, as far as this particular place is concerned, that you could take the water away.
 Mr. STEARNS. How is it at points beyond, where a slide has already started?
 Mr. STEVENS. I think I would test them very carefully, and if it showed the ground full of little percolating streams that were flowing on the surface, I should certainly treat it.
 Mr. HUNTER. Is there anything you would like to say, Mr. Stevens?
 Mr. STEVENS. Yes; there is one thing. Give us the type of canal just as soon as you can. You must understand, of course, that I can not, and I do not believe any human being can, do much more than mark time until that is done. I can fix my quarters,.and as far as my limited intelligence permits me I can contract for certain rolling stock. I have contracted for two or three million dollars' worth of plant the last month, but beyond that I can not go. Here is this little railroad; we have got to have better terminals at the south end. I want a better yard at La Boca, but you may select an alignment which will interfere with any improvement I might start now.
 Mr. HUNTER. That is the one point you are anxious about, Mr. Stevens?
 Mr. STEVENS. Yes; but I realize the importance of taking time to settle it right as much as anyone. I think that this proposition is one that grows on a man the more he gets acquainted with it.
 Mr. PARSONS. During last winter the chief engineer kept account of certain costs of the work, and during the French regime, before the United States took hold of the work, Major Black, who bad been in the Government employ, kept account of the French cost. I would like to ask the engineer if he has analyzed those figures?
 Mr. STEVENS. I have not. Mr. Dose brought down all those daily reports.
 Mr. GUE'RARD. If I understand correctly, there are no quarries around here, and if we have to make breakwaters or any large rock masonry work I would like to know at what location the quarries could be opened for works of masonry and breakwaters at Limon Bay and Panama also, and where you will find the necessary quantity of sand for this work?
 Mr. STEVENS. As far as rock is concerned, I do not think the rock found on the Isthmus could be quarried and cut into dimension stone.
 Mr. GUERARD. And for the sand?
 Mr. STEVENS. The only sand I know of is beach sand, which has to be chosen very carefully, or sand from the Chagres River. I think we could get the sand all right, though.
 Mr. GUZRARD. We must bear in mind that all sand is not good for sea work; that the sea will destroy masonry work with certain kinds of sand.
 Mr. STEVENS. Sand which I would call ideal sand would be pure silica.
 Mr. GU]RARD. My question was not answered.


294