about six miles from Pedro Miguel to the Bay of Panama.

Now, the total distance traversed by the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific is only forty-five miles, and it will be noticed that the two lakes in question will actually cover thirty-one miles, or slightly more than two-thirds of the route. Thus vessels passing from ocean to ocean will go through only one mile of ditch for every two miles of lake-the expedient described doing away necessarily with two-thirds of the digging which, but for the lakes, would be required. Here comes in one of the most important advantages of the canal with locks (the type which has been finally chosen), as compared with the much-advocated sea-level canal.

There was something very attractive about the idea of the suggested Straits of Panama, as the advocates of the sealevel plan loved to call it-a strip of clear water running from ocean to ocean at tide level-but it had several serious disadvantages, one of them being an everpresent danger from the tremendous annual floods of the Chagres River. On the other hand, the ditch with dams and

locks transforms the Chagres from a dreaded enemy into a most useful friend, causing it to form the great lake aforesaid, and thus to provide easy means of navigation over more than half the distance to be covered, without demanding, so far as that much of the route is concerned, any labor and expense for digging.

The two great obstacles to the digging of the canal have been from the beginning a mountain and a river. It has been shown how the river (the Chagres) is to be handled and made useful. The mountain is at Culebra, where it has been found necessary to remove a huge vertical slice seven miles long out of it, making what is known as the Culebra Cut. This alone is a vast undertaking, but here again a means is being applied whereby the difficulty will be turned to serviceable account-the rock taken out being carried twenty-five miles to Gatun and there employed for the building of the great dam.

In the early stages of construction work on the dam such material will necessarily be conveyed by railroad, on

flat-cars, but after a while, when the region between Culebra and Gatun is overspread by the artificial lake, it will be transported with much diminished labor and expense on scows towed by steam-tugs. To compare the process to the taking of a mountain from one place and putting it down in another is not inapt; in fact, it is fairly descriptive of what has to be done, the dam at Gatun being as planned-a mile and a half long, half a mile wide at its base, three hundred and seventy-five feet thick at the contemplated water level, and one hundred and thirty-five feet in height.

as already explained, will be six miles long.

To get across the Isthmus, vessels will have to be lifted eighty-five feet at one end of the canal, and lowered an equal distance at the other end, an arrangement of locks being utilized for the purpose. At each end there will be three locks, serving the purpose of so many steps up or down. Thus at Gatun a ship entering from the Atlantic side will pass into an enclosed basin of rectangular shape one thousand feet long by one hundred feet wide. This is the first lock, into which water is thereupon allowed to flow until

The dam in question will be by far the greatest and most massive structure ever erected by human hands. In these respects it will far surpass the largest and most famous of the Egyptian Pyramids, that of Cheops-its construction requiring 2,100,000,000 cubic yards of material. At Pedro Miguel, it may here be said, there will be a smaller dam, and two others near the Pacific terminus of the canal these three serving to contain the second and smaller artificial lake, which,

it raises the ship thirty feet. She then passes at that level into a second basin exactly like the first one, where by the same means she is hoisted another thirty feet. Entering a third lock, she is lifted twenty-five feet more, and, finding herself at the level of the surface of the great artificial lake, she is released and steams merrily on her way toward Panama.

One advantage of the lakes is that vessels can steam across them at full speed,

whereas in a comparatively narrow ditch they would be obliged to go slow. Thus much time will be saved in the passage across the Isthmus. As for the locks, it would be more strictly correct to say that there will be six of them at each end of the canal, because they will be twinnedthat is to say, built in pairs, the object in view being to avoid delays in case of the temporary disablement of any one of them. Should an accident happen to a lock, its mate will be used while it is undergoing repairs. This, especially in

sea-going vessels, seriously retarding their speed, would almost drop off of their own accord-rendering the process of cleaning easy and rapid.

The Panama Canal, when completed, will be lighted by electricity from end to end, like a street. Already the government is establishing for this and other purposes immense electrical plants, currents from which will be utilized later on for operating a good deal of the machinery that does the excavating and other work. By this means it will be

at Gatun, will, when that vast structure has been completed, stand on the bottom of the artificial lake already described, eighty-five feet beneath the surface of the water. In expectation of this premeditated catastrophe, however, a new town has been recently built on neighboring hills. Indeed, since the Americans have occupied the Canal strip villages of upto-date pattern, provided with all modern. improvements, have been springing up with almost magical rapidity-each one of them having a handsome club-house and great mess-halls for the officials, clerks, and laborers. Overlooking the Culebra Cut is one of these towns, with five thousand inhabitants-the verandaencircled and screen-protected houses being mostly of the peculiar pattern which Chief Engineer Stevens described as resembling an owl: all feathers and very little inside works.

Speaking of the mess-halls, a curious. difficulty recently arose because of the unwillingness of the clerks to eat with the laborers. But the problem was solved in a remarkably simple and easy way. It was ordered that those who wore coats at meals should mess in one hall, while those who preferred to dispense with that garment should eat in another hall. Inasmuch as the laborers invariably elected to take their meals in their shirts, a

separation between them and the clerks accomplished itself without the slightest friction or real feeling.

The only untoward incident in connection with this arrangement arose, so they say, when, on a luckless occasion, Rear Admiral Endicott, of the United States Navy, one of the most dignified officers in the service, attempted to enter without his coat (the day being very hot) a mess-hall which was forbidden to the coatless. An attendant politely tapped him on the shoulder, and indicated that the hall near by, in which the laborers were busy at their mid-day meal, was the appropriate place for him to dine. course, it was all explained a few moments later, but meanwhile the anger and disgust of the admiral at the supposed indignity offered him may easily be imagined.

Of

When finished, the canal will be guarded at each entrance by two great modern fortresses, unsurpassed in strength by any in the world. Commanding as advantageously as possible the approaches from the sea, they will be as near the water's edge as practicable, in order to be able to drop explosive shells upon the decks of hostile ships. Such forts are very different from those of the old style, which were usually masonry structures with high walls. Instead

of such an arrangement, they may be said to consist of a series of concrete-lined pits below the level of the ground, in each of which stands a huge high-power gun, concealed from view save at intervals when it is uplifted above the parapet to shoot. From the water's edge back to the line of the gun-pits extends a gradual slope of concrete, over which are several feet of earth, so that the entire defensive outfit has, so to speak, the landscape for its roof. Such a fortress. in fact is a congeries of

little forts; and even if one of the latter should be captured by an enemy, it could not be held, because all the others would immediately turn their guns upon it.

Thus defended, the canal cannot possibly be attacked successfully from the ocean. The only way in which it could be seriously threatened would be by a

strong armed force landed at a distance up or down the coast and marched against it. But, as a precaution against such a military movement, our government would, in the event of war, place a considerable army on the Isthmus-the locks being protected by supplementary fortifications which will be erected in their immediate neighborhood.