advise you further of our coming, keeping in mind the preference which you indicated, that the hour of conference be about 11 o'clock in the forenoon.

Am writing you to-day concerning the cable from Consul-General Hart published Saturday. It is evident that the limited purpose and nature of the measure referred to is not fully reported from Bogota, and is given undue significance.

WM. NELSON CROMWELL, Counsel New Panama Canal Company.

Mr. Cromwell to Mr. Hay.

NEW YORK, December 5, 1898.

MY DEAR SIR: I beg leave to confirm the telegram which I sent you at 10.45 this morning, as per inclosure.

Upon my return I learned through Director-General Hutin (who had preceded me to New York) that the measure which had just been acted on by one branch only of the Colombian Congress was a bill to authorize the executive to negotiate the terms of and to conclude a further prorogation of six years from 1904 for the completion of the canal under a communication which the company had addressed to the Government, in the form of which I inclose you a translation.

You will note that the company specifically stated to the Government that the prorogation was not a matter of absolute necessity, but was desirable in the interests of commerce and navigation to enable an even deeper cut to be made (and which would reduce the number of locks to four), but which reduction would of course require more time than the plan adopted.

You will note that the bill proposed to confer power upon the Executive, and this happened to arise under extraordinary political conditions in Bogotá. As you have probably been advised through official channels, a serious difference has recently been existing between the House of Representatives of Colombia and the President, the House having passed formal resolution declaring the office of President vacant, and refusing to recognize the qualification of the President before the supreme court.

We therefore construe the action of the House of Representatives as only a part of the strife between the House and the President, and not a declaration of the policy of the nation or the Congress in re

spect of the Panama Canal, and as not evidencing hostility to the company itself. We are the more confirmed in this belief because of the uniform consideration and cordiality displayed by the Congress and the Government to the New Panama Canal Company, which we have no doubt their minister at Washington would fully confirm to

you.

Our company has not the least apprehension regarding any prorogation of its concessions it may consider necessary in the future. I have, etc., your obedient servant.

WM. NELSON CROMWELL, Counsel New Panama Canal Company.

[Inclosure in letter of Mr. Cromwell to Mr. Hay, December 5, 1898.]

To the Seigneurie, Dr. P. A. MOLINA,

Minister of Finance of the Republic of Colombia, Bogotá: Alexander Napoleon Mancini, representative to the Government of Colombia of the New Panama Canal Company, has the honor to reply to your excellency and to explain the following, viz:

At the time of the prorogation accorded in 1893 there was in view the completion of the canal in accordance with the plan as established by the technical commission, which plan determined the lowest level of the divide to be between 35 and 30 meters below the sea level.

The studies made by the new company show that it will be of great advantage to make the cut deeper, and such work will naturally require a longer time.

It is not necessary to call urgent attention to the fact that the Colombian Government itself has the greatest interest to facilitate the completion of the canal affording the best possible conditions for navigation and commerce.

There is no doubt that the interests of Colombia are closely identified with those of the canal company, and that the future of this nation depends in part upon the success of the works of the canal at Panama; and it is admitted that in order to provide in a very complete manner the increasing necessities of navigation and commerce it becomes doubly important to deepen the cut of the central mass below 25 meters. The plan of completion of the canal as prepared by the company, with the aid of its technical commission, suggests the idea to the canal management of deepening the cut to about 10 meters. Therefore the time of completion of the canal, which is at the end of 1904, becomes insufficient for the completion of said important work, and the company could not without serious risk of miscalculation affirm that the canal with such modification can be completed within the said time, and the company considers that it is proper to ask a prorogation of six years from 1904, so that it may complete the canal in the condition above mentioned.

All that precedes is not of absolute necessity. The company can, if necessary, make the cut at 25 meters, for instance, as heretofore calculated, and in that case a further prorogation will not be absolutely necessary. But, on the other hand, the company considers, as said above, that the deepening of the cut to about 10 meters will give much better results in respect to the operation of the canal.

The Colombian Government can not fail to realize the importance of the purpose above explained and of the interest attached to a prorogation. Consequently, and in consideration of the considerable advantages which will inure to general commerce from the opening of the canal, the undersigned solicits, in the name of the New Panama Canal Company, a prorogation of six years for the completion of the canal, and is confident that the Government of the Republic will accord such extension of time under the best possible conditions.

The company relies upon the kind cooperation of the Colombian Government, which has such great interest in the work, to facilitate the completion of such work.

The undersigned does not need to recall to your excellency that during the past four years the company has constructed works of such great importance that they have attracted the attention and approbation of all competent people who have visited the Isthmus.

I have, etc.,

A. MANCINI,

Representative of the New Panama Canal Company.

BOGOTA, November 1, 1898.

Messrs. Sullivan & Cromwell to Mr. Hay.

NEW YORK, December 21, 1898.

MY DEAR SIR: Further to my letter of December 5, 1898, receipt of which was acknowledged by your favor of the 8th instant, I beg leave to say that we are advised by our counsel at Bogotá that the official minutes of the session of the House of Representatives declares that the bill concerning the extension of the New Panama Canal Company has not been acted upon for lack of time. We, however, yesterday received further cable advising us that the Government had granted the extension subject to the approval of the next Congress, and I note from this morning's Herald that similar advices have been received by the press.

It is the opinion of the Government executives and of ourselves that power to give such extension is already located in the Government by the terms of the original concession; but the formality of ratification will be requested in due course, and of its being granted we have not the remotest apprehension.

You will thus see that my confidence in the attitude of Colombia, as indicated in my last note, has been fully and quickly confirmed. Faithfully, yours,

WM. NELSON CROMWELL, General Counsel New Panama Canal Company.

Mr. Hutin to Mr. Hay.

NEW YORK, December 21, 1898.

SIR: In addition to the certified copy of the official report of the International Technical Commission, which I had the honor of delivering to you on the 2d instant as a part of the communication of the

company addressed to the President under date of November 18, 1898, I now have the honor of handing you a copy of an additional report made November 19, 1898, by Messrs. Zurcher and Bertrand, eminent engineers of France, upon the cut of the Culebra and Emperador mountains.

The report of the International Technical Commission, as well as the inclosure, being part of our official communication to the President, are for your official files and use. I merely mention this that you may not courteously consider them confidential.

I have the honor, etc.,

M. HUTIN,

Director-General of the New Panama Canal Company.

[Inclosure-Translation.]

NOTE ON THE CULEBRA AND EMPERADOR CUTS.

The works of the preparatory trench (cunette) and the wells accompanying them now enable us to understand with great certainty the composition and general nature of the soil to be removed. We can very happily say that the difficulties previously foreseen are greatly diminished by this more complete examination.

In the first explorations the explorers were naturally very much struck by the abundance of eruptive rocks, and it was supposed that the central frame of the Isthmus was formed of such rocks of great hardness, in which clay was found only in pockets more or less deep. The first works, on the contrary, by bringing to light a succession of clays of little solidity gave reason to fear the possibility of caving in and the necessity of very gentle slopes. Now, in reality, the axis of the Isthmus is formed of a series of sandstone, pudding stone, and marl of medium hardness, and the eruptive rocks spreading through these sheets or veins play only a secondary part. So far as hardness and solidity are concerned, it may therefore be said that the conditions will be more favorable than could at first be hoped.

The geological formation of the Isthmus seems from the studies already made to display, as the most ancient formation, an eruptive breccia, improperly designated Gamboa sandstone."

It will be met with only in the Emperador cut, where it will constitute less than one-seventh of the excavation. It would not reappear

a The Gamboa rock seems to be closely connected with the conglomerates of Bohio, in which M. Douvillé ascertained the presence of nummulites. It is likewise probable that the limestone containing nummulites in the neighborhood of Emperador, described by Mr. Hill, ought to belong to the same lower series, the age of which is probably Lower Oligocene or Eocene. All these determinations of age, however, are given only provisionally, as the study of the materials collected is not yet finished.

The proportion of one-seventh has been calculated on the provisional cut estimated by the axis of the trench (cunette). As the eruptive rock is met with most in the deepest parts, where the width is less, it can be seen that this proportion ought to be considerably diminished, even allowing for the total excavation.

in the Culebra cut, even if the canal were made on a level. It seems to support in discordance the alternation of pudding stone, sandstone, and marl, already mentioned. This system, which is probably of the Upper Oligocene age, ends at the top by a bed of lignites and a bank of lenticular limestone (km. 49), the fossils in which give reason to attribute it to the Miocene. Subsequent eruptions, mostly of a basaltic nature, have given rise to veins, which cross the strata vertically, which, in places, have penetrated between the beds in long intrusive sheets, and which have cropped out in the hills (cerros). The importance of these eruptive rocks, so far as the excavations are concerned, is entirely secondary. The position of the beds remains regular and evidently horizontal in the neighborhood of the veins and of the sheets, and there is no reason to fear any of the disturbances the possibility of which caused anxiety to the Commission of studies of 1889, and which might have given rise to more or less important local slides.

It may be said practically that the whole of the work of the great cut (Culebra) must be made in the sedimentary system of the pudding stone, sandstone, and marl, the hardness of which, according to the old soundings, hardly exceeds No. VI of the scale adopted, and the rocks of which may all consequently be cut with steel. The examination of these lands shows that they will stand extremely well, and this fact has been practically proved by the experience of the preparatory trench (cunette), the slopes of which have been exposed to the air for more than two years. Even the marl, which, when in separate pieces, disintegrates and splits easily, resists very well in a mass, and may require, at the most, some local supports to protect it from the action of the atmosphere.

In the upper part the strata, which have been more or less affected, have assumed a red tint and a more clayey composition to a variable height, which, in some places, may be as much as 20 meters. These strata, which were almost entirely excavated by the old company with a width corresponding that of the canal at its level, are those which caused the Cucoracha caving-in. Other little cavings-in occurred above Emperador (kil. 51), and recently above Cucoracha. The ques tion of these cavings-in was formerly a cause of great anxiety, bu that cause no longer exists. That of Cucoracha was partly due to want of care in the method of constructing the embankments, and it was easily stopped by comparatively simple works of drainage. Besides at that point (from 54.5 to 55.5) the slope of the clays on the left bank is directed toward the cut, and may be as much as 20°. Admitting, therefore, that special precautions must be taken to prevent the recurrence of such an accident, they would only extend over about 1 kilometer.

To sum up, the work will be done in sedimentary ground, the regularity of which enables precautions to be taken with great certainty. No very hard rocks will be encountered, excepting at the most a seventh of the Emperador cut. The other ground, which is of medium hardness, holds extremely well and will not need any supports; an average slope of 45° (including the banquettes) can be safely used with them. There are no caving belts to fear, except the clays of the upper part, which are already almost entirely excavated, and if any special precautions are to be taken against cavings-in, it would