A dam will be constructed across the Rio Grande from San Juan Hill to Sosa Hill, another from Sosa Hill to Corozal Hill, and a small dam from Corozal Hill to the high ground to the eastward. These dams will form a lake known as Sosa Lake. It has an area of about 8 square miles and will be provided with regulating works for discharging its surplus waters. The amount of material in these dams is as follows: La Boca dam, 6,300,000 cubic yards; Corozal-Sosa dam, 5,397,000 cubic yards. Each one of these dams may be constructed in whole or in part from material excavated from the canal. No estimate has yet been made for regulating works.

XIII.

PANAMA BAY SECTION.

From Sosa locks to the deep water in Panama Bay, a distance of about 4 miles, the channel is to have a bottom width of 500 feet and a depth of 50 feet below mean tide. The mean rise and fall of the tide is about 15 feet, but it may reach as much as 22 or 23 feet. The material to be excavated in forming this channel is believed to be nearly all soft. The estimated amount is 8,528,000 cubic yards.

XIV.

PANAMA RAILROAD.

The Panama Railroad will be relocated thruout almost the entire distance from the mouth of the Mindi River to Panama. Some heavy embankments will be required to cross certain portions of Gatun Lake. These embankments it is expected to build of material excavated from railroad cuts or from the prism of the canal.

XV.

SUMMARY.

The following is a summary of the estimated excavation and structural material in the canal; these quantities are only approximate estimates and may be varied considerably: 1. Colon section:

From 42-foot curve M. S. L. in Caribbean Sea to Mindi, mile 0 to mile 4.55-
Excavation 500 feet wide..

1. Colon section:

cubic yards. 8, 455,000

Excavation, 1,000 feet to 300 feet wide........................cubic yards.. 24, 000, 000

Excavation, 500 feet to 1,000 feet wide........cubic yards.. 1,680,000

ISTHMIAN CANAL.

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 14, 1907.

MY DEAR SENATOR: At the hearing before the committee it was requested that the committee be supplied for its files with certain original documents relating to the preparation of the contract for the construction of the canal. I inclose a copy of draft of a proposed agreement, the substance of which was first submitted to the President in June last by Mr. Walston H. Brown, who claimed at that time to represent a syndicate of contractors who were willing to contract privately for the construction of the canal. Mr. Brown subsequently conferred with Mr. Stevens on the subject, and upon the Isthmus Mr. Stevens and Mr. Shonts discussed the contract, and the result of their deliberations is contained in the letter from Mr. Stevens to Mr. Shonts, copy of which is inclosed.

These documents contain the general idea of a percentage contract, with system of penalties and awards based upon an engineering estimate as to a reasonable time for the construction of the canal. In preparing the original draft of the contract this general scheme of a percentage contract and of penalties and awards was adhered to. Other suggestions were adopted as far as possible, but in working out the details of this plan and fixing the mutual obligations and duties of the respective parties it was found that very little benefit was derived from any of the precedents, of which we had a number before us, or any original suggestions relative to the formation of the contract. After the contract was reduced to the form of a first draft by the chairman and myself, it was submitted to the criticism of a number of the leading contractors of the country, and ultimately of their counsel. After it had been printed in its revised form it was considered with great care by the President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War, and later on certain changes were made, the main object of which was to reduce the contingent liability of the contractor. We found that in several respects, without sacrificing any of the real interests of the Government, the contract could be modified so as to eliminate in part and to greatly restrict in other respects this contingent liability, and thereby procure, without corresponding sacrifice, more favorable bids from associations of contractors.

Yours, very truly,

Hon. J. H. MILLARD,

RICHD. REID ROGERS,
General Counsel.

Chairman Committee on Interoceanic Canals,
United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

Hon. THEODORE P. SHONTS,

NEW YORK, August 22, 1906.

Chairman Isthmian Canal Commission, New York City. MY DEAR SIR: As you requested, I inclose herewith a clear copy of the memorandum which was sent to the President.

I will ask the various members of the company for their references, and as soon as I receive them will forward them to you as you requested.

I hope you will feel at liberty to call upon me for any information or help that I can render, or if you should wish to consult with me at any time.

Yours, very truly,

WALSTON H. BROWN.

UNION CONSTRUCTION COMPANY.

[Capital Stock, $12,000,000.]

Directors.—Arthur F. MacArthur, vice-president and general manager of MacArthur Brothers Company, Chicago, Ill.; R. J. Kilpatrick, president of Kilpatrick Brothers & Collins Contracting Company, Beatrice, Nebr.; Arthur McMullen, of Arthur McMullen & Co., New York, N. Y.; Jules Breuchard, of Coleman, Breuchard & Coleman, New York, N. Y.; Walston H. Brown, of Walston H. Brown & Bros. (successors of Brown, Howard & Co.), New York, N. Y.; Thomas A. Gillespie, of T. A. Gillespie & Co., Pittsburg, Pa.; R. G. Packard, of R. G. Packard Company, New York, N. Y.

Officers.-Walston H. Brown, chairman of board of directors; Arthur F. MacArthur, president.

Vice-president, secretary, treasurer, executive committee.

The above-named directors of this company are the active managing members of the respective firms which they represent, which firms are among the largest and most experienced and successful contracting firms in the United States, and the personnel of the directory has been selected on account of the well-known ability of the directors, who by long training and experience have put their firms into the first rank of American contractors through their intimate personal knowledge and experience in all the various classes of contracting work and engineering experience which will be required in the building of the Panama Canal.

A brief summary of some of the important work successfully undertaken and completed by the firms above mentioned is as follows:

MacArthur Brothers Company.-Important contracts have been in the construction of the Burlington and Northern Railroad; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad; Chicago, St. Paul and Kansas City Railroad; Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad; four sections of the Chicago Drainage Canal; Illinois Central Railroad; also over 1,000 miles of other railroad construction; construction of the Wachusett dam for the Metropolitan Water Board, at Clinton, Mass., the second largest masonry structure in America.

Six ship locks, having been constructed for the United States Government. Among other important works under construction at this time by this firm may be mentioned the large contract with the United States Government for the construction of 3 miles of channel through the West Neebish Rapids for the new entrance to the Sault lock at the Sault Ste. Marie. Construction of many other important masonry structures, foundations. bridge work, etc.

Walston H. Brown & Bros. (successors of Brown, Howard & Co.).—St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad; Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis Railroad; Lake Erie and Western Railroad; Peoria, Decatur and Evansville Railroad; Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad; Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railroad;

Cincinnati, Jackson and Mackinaw Railroad; New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate); Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic. Also contractors for the new Croton Aqueduct for the city of New York, consisting of 16 miles of rock tunnel.

Kilpatrick Brothers & Collins Contracting Company.-Over 2,000 miles of railroad construction, principally west of the Missouri River, including principal contracts for the extension of the Union Pacific Railroad Company; Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and Chicago Northwestern system in the West, together with a large amount of other general work of an important nature.

Coleman, Breuchard & Coleman.-Have just completed the new Croton dam, the largest masonry dam in the United States; likewise much other important work of a similar nature,

Arthur McMullen & Co.-Have been engaged in some of the heaviest foundation and bridge construction work in the country, notably the construction of the important bridge structure on the Wabash extension to Pittsburg, together with the construction of the important masonry structures in connection with the Pennsylvania Railroad terminal at Washington, and much very large concrete and bridge work for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

T. A. Gillespie & Co.-The St. Lawrence Power Canal (12 miles in length); East Jersey water-supply dams; locks and dams for the United States Government in West Virginia; also work on the Wabash system.

R. G. Packard Company.---The following is a summary of the most important work done by R. G. Packard, president of the R. G. Packard Company:

Canal at Aransas Pass, Tex.; submarine rock excavation at Hell Gate, Hallett Point, Man o' War Rock, Shell Reef, Third and Twenty-sixth streets reefs, New York Harbor; Saugerties, N. Y., and Pawtucket River, Rhode Island; all for the United States Government.

Dredging contracts: Lubec, Portland, Me.; Boston and Woods Hole, Mass.; Providence, Newport, and at various other harbors on Long Island Sound.

Numerous contracts in the harbor of New York, including navy-yard, East, Harlem, and North rivers; Raritan Bay, Raritan River, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Baltimore; all for the United States Government.

Contracts for dredging for the city of New York, large portion of same done on the Chelsea section from West Tenth to West Twenty-third streets.

Dredging for the West Shore Railroad at Weehawken; also for New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

Filling with pump dredges: League Island Navy-Yard, Philadelphia; Canarsie, Coney Island, and Shrewsbury River.

Sinking piers of the Poughkeepsie Bridge across the Hudson River.

Repairs to Dry Dock No. 3, navy-yard, Brooklyn, including cofferdam and its removal.

Breaking up and removing numerous wrecks for the Government.

Building, designing, dredging, and submarine blasting machinery on which has been allowed several patents.

In addition to the above, a large amount of work for private parties. The construction work above mentioned has, it is thought, comprised almost every detail which will be met with in the construction of the Panama Canal, and in its accomplishment has called for the highest order of constructive ability and an intimate knowledge of detail in large open excavations, tunnels, dams, locks, masonry, dredging, difficult foundation work, and in the installation and operation of large plants and machinery of all kinds, and the masterly control of labor problems and the handling of large armies of workmen by means of perfected organizations which have been created by and are an integral part of the contracting firms above represented.

The financial standing and integrity of the firms represented, and their record of large undertakings successfully carried on to completion, are unquestioned, and in addition to this, the company's own resources are augmented by a guaranteed credit of $10,000,000.

The Union Construction Company offers to undertake the construction of the Panama Canal according to the plans and specifica