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[H. F. Dose, resident engineer, Bohio.]

The boring party at San Pablo dam site has completed two additional holes. Two boring parties have been engaged along the center line of the canal above Las Cascadas and one party on the tunnel line toward the Gatuncillo watershed.

The surveying party at Bas Obispo have been closing up some work in the vicinity of Gamboa dam. This work will be completed in about ten days, at which time the topographical surveys pertaining to the control of the different streams entering the Chagres below Gamboa will be continued.

[Boyd Ehle, acting division engineer, Culebra.]

Construction.-The total number of yards taken out of Culebra during the week was 33,561, being an average of 5,593 cubic yards per day.

Surveys and technical work. The surveys at Miraflores have been completed. A plat has been made of the village of Culebra, showing the property that will come within the slope of the canal.

Clearings for levels to be taken along the center line of the canal from Bas Obispo are being made, and various surveys for additional topography have been in progress.

The detail engaged upon inspection of the bridges of the Panama Railroad has about completed its work.

A large part of the force have been engaged in making estimates of quantities of amount of material taken out during the month of March.

[A. C. Harper, resident engineer, La Boca.]

A mareograph has been installed in the tidal station at the end of La Boca pier and is now in operation.

Five thousand nine hundred feet of line have been cleared on the center line and cross lines for topography, and stations have been set from 159 to 173.

[C. E. Davis, engineer, waterworks and sewers.]

Supply line from Rio Grande reservoir to Panama.-Piles for a temporary bridge across the canal cut near Pedro Miguel have been driven. Pipe is now being laid to fill in this gap.

A number of specials have been set, and the work of concreting about the galvanized pipe at the upper end of the line has been continued.

Distribution pipe line for the city of Panama.-A certain amount of 8-inch pipe ordered for other places on the Isthmus having arrived by steamer from New Orleans, it has been diverted to Panama. This has enabled the construc

tion work to proceed upon Central avenue.

The amount of pipe laid during the week is as follows: Seven hundred and sixty-four feet of 6-inch pipe and 177 feet of 8-inch pipe in Panaman sewers. Sewers have been laid where pipe trench has been opened on Central avenue.

The amount of sewer pipe laid during the week was 493 feet of 8-inch pipe and 220 feet of 12-inch pipe.

Culebra waterworks.-The construction of the reservoir upon the hill has been begun. A small amount of 4-inch pipe has been laid.

Gorgona waterworks.—Work has been commenced upon the dam made necessary by increasing the water supply at this point.

Work has been continued upon the 6-inch fire line for the mechanical shops at Bas Matachin.

Colon waterworks.-A force of about 30 men has been engaged in doing preparatory work and in laying Decauville track to Monkey Hill from the Brazos Brook reservoir.

M. O. Johnson, supervising architect.]

At La Boca wharf 1,268 feet of piling has been driven and 4,000 feet of lumber put in place.

At Ancon Hospital a force of 200 men has been employed during the week. At Corozal fair progress has been made upon the bachelor quarters, where a force of 114 men has been employed. Repairs have also been in progress upon the colored quarters and upon the quarters for married men.

At Miraflores 3 houses have been undergoing repairs.

At Culebra 105 men have been engaged upon the bachelor quarters, which are now ready for occupancy, although some work remains to be done.

At Cristobal repairs have been continued on 15 houses, and the usual force has been at work upon the hospital.

[C. A. Strom, mechanical engineer.]

Bas Matachin shops.-The work of overhauling locomotives Nos. 26 and 58 has been continued.

Twenty-six French dump cars have been overhauled and put in shape for service.

A large number of castings have been made, consisting of manholes for waterworks and sewers, locomotive grate bars, oil boxes for dump cars, etc. Empire shop.-Three locomotives have been completely overhauled and work upon four others continued.

Special repairs on two locomotives received from Culebra have been completed and general repairs commenced upon two others received from that place. Eighteen French dump cars have been overhauled and made ready for service. The work of placing additional machinery in the woodworking shop has been continued.

Foundations have been laid for the band saw and boring machine, and these machines have been installed.

Cristobal shops.-Work has been begun on steam pump for waterworks and sewers department.

Work has been continued on locomotives and overhauling engine for tie-boring machine and various smaller repairs.

EMPLOYEES.

The number of men at work on April 5 was as follows:

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DEAR SIR: The character of the men who have recently been coming out from Washington are no improvement on those we have been getting heretofore-in fact, the conditions are a little more aggravating owing to the fact that they have been sending out some higher price men who are of no use to us whatever. I call your attention to the following instances:

One, Gradison, Culebra, supervisor of excavation, $175 per month, former experience, Government work in Tennessee. Claims to have had experience around steam shovels, but the work he has done since coming here would indicate that he knows nothing about it. He is of no use to us.

Penny, sent here as supervisor of pumps, at $175 per month. According to his statement he has had considerable experience on contract work, but he is evidently not the man we want here. He is not capable and hustling and getting work out of men.

Anthony, supervisor of tracks, at $175 per month. Has had no experience on track work at all.

I also understand from Mr. Ehle that several of the yardmasters who have recently arrived and are getting $140 and $150 per month, are of little or no value, but we have not as yet had opportunity to fully determine their ability. In going through Culebra this morning I found that the labor situation, owing to delayed pay day, is quite serious. The men are doing little or nothing, and are attempting to work when they have been without food and are physically unable to do manual labor. One or two individual cases that came under my notice were really pitiable. In this connection I inclose you a clipping from the Panama Star and Herald of this date.

Very truly, yours,

W. E. DAUCHY, Acting Chief Engineer.

Mr. JOHN F. WALLACE,

Chief Engineer Isthmian Canal Commission,

PANAMA, April 17, 1905.

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: On Saturday, the 15th, I received your cable message in regard to turning over the contract laborers received from the Panama Railroad to Mr. Prescott. I am arranging to do this as soon at Mr. Prescott can arrange for quarters for the men.

This will relieve the difficulty of having to keep track of so many different rates of pay, but it will probably make us short of laborers for a time, as Mr. Prescott tells me he has very few men to release that are not contract men.

I have just returned from a trip to Culebra, and want to again call your attention to the kind of men that are being sent to us from Washington. Last week we received 8 foremen, at $100 per month each, who are practically of no service to us. These men have been employed in various capacities, but none of them upon railroad work.

One was foreman for a contractor upon general city work in Philadelphia; another was a foreman having had charge of the erection of telegraph poles; another was a foreman in a stone quarry; and still another one had charge of a lot of mules in Government service.

These men are not only of no service to us at all, but are a detriment to the work in two ways:

In the first place, the cost of their salaries increases the cost of the output; and in the next place, they retard the work in this way: They are put in charge of a gang of men and a certain reliance must of necessity be placed upon them, and as no satisfactory results are obtained from their service we not only lose the services of the foreman himself, but of the men that he has in charge.

We have tried to use these men as dump foremen and are still doing so, but it is very necessary that we have men for such positions that know something about tracks, as they not only have to look after the dumping of cars, but the continual throwing of track, and sometimes quite a little track surfacing.

We have not as yet received a single track foreman from the States, notwithstanding the fact that four months have elapsed since we stated our pressing necessities in that line; nor have we as yet received any track tools, requisi'tions for same having been in since last November.

I wish to state that we have now practically reached our limit of any expansion of the work at Culebra until we get a large number of track foremen.

The rains have now started at Culebra. It is going to be necessary for us to use all the track foremen that we have there at the present time in keeping the tracks already laid in serviceable condition.

In fact, we have not enough men for this purpose, particularly as these tracks have not been put in proper condition during the dry weather, owing to this same lack of foremen and lack of track tools.

The only track tools that we have received to apply upon our requisitions have been some hand cars and rubble cars, which have just arrived at Culebra. Since we first stated our needs for track foremen and track tools, 850 men have been added to our forces, and since that time we have had no increase whatever in track foremen nor track tools, except the few that we obtained from the Panama Railroad about a month ago.

Since our request went in in December for additional foremen, 6 additional steam shovels have been put to work, and our train service has been increased to about three times what it was. The amount of track to be maintained has increased in the same proportion.

It has been necessary to use every available track foreman to lay the additional tracks necessary to expand our output to what it is at present, and practically no work has been done upon the maintenance work.

The rains have now started at Culebra. It rained very hard there Saturday and was raining again there to-day, and in order to keep things running on the present basis it is going to be necessary to put what foremen we have upon maintenance work, which will practically stop all new track laying.

Very respectfully,

W. E. DAUCHY, Acting Chief Engineer.

Mr. JOHN F. WALLACE,

PANAMA, April 17, 1905.

Chief Engineer Isthmian Canal Commission, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: Up to the night of the 15th instant, we had taken out at Culebra 75,848 cubic yards of material. I have expected to get out about 156,000 cubic yards this month, but as the present week is holy week, in which it is almost impossible to get any labor done in this country, and owing to the further fact that the governor has issued a proclamation making Thursday and Friday of this week both holidays, we have left but ten more working days in this month, including to-day, and probably but a small proportion of the force will work at all between now and Easter Sunday.

Yours, truly,

W. E. DAUCHY, Acting Chief Engineer.

PANAMA, April 17, 1905.

Mr. JOHN F. WALLACE,

Chief Engineer Isthmian Canal Commission, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: I submit herewith the following brief report of operations in the construction and engineering department for the week ending April 15, 1905 :

[F. B. Maltby, division engineer, Cristobal.]

The work of reconnoissance and building of stations for triangulation, also topographical work south of Gatun, has been continued.

The work of the relocation of the Panama Railroad between Gatuncillo Bridge and Monkey Hill has been continued.

Track work has been carried on in Cristobal yard and leading into the machine shop.

The work of reconstructing the light lumber wharf in the vicinity of magazine No. 4 has been continued, with a very small force.

Gatun section. Mr. Nichols and party are engaged in completing drawings and data for his final report on the special work assigned to him.

[H. F. Dose, resident engineer, Bohio.]

Seven boring parties have been at work, viz: Two on the San Pablo dam site, one at kilometer 50, one at kilometer 51, two near Paraiso, one on the tunnel line.

Investigations at San Pablo are completed. At Paraiso 19 borings have been made since March 24. These borings are taken at every kilometer where the holes are extended to -40. In addition to these holes at even kilometers, holes are placed every 500 feet, but are only extended for the present to locate rock.

The boring party on the tunnel line started on the third hole early in the week.

The survey party at Bas Obispo has been filling in topography between Gamboa dam and the Panama Railroad tracks below Bas Obispo.

At Bohio survey has been made covering the territory on the south side of the Panama Railroad and near the San Pablo dam site.

The party in the upper Chagres is continuing the explorations and investigations.

[Boyd Ehle, acting division engineer, Culebra.]

Construction.-The total number of cubic yards taken out of Culebra during the week was 35,910, being an average of 5.985 cubic yards per day.

Steam shovel 105, the fifth of the 70-ton shovels, was started to work on Monday, making 7 shovels working in all.

Excavator 18 was also started up on Monday for the purpose of cutting a hole through the obstruction at the south end of the cut. This machine has been working quite poorly and we have numerous breakdowns.

Excavator 52 was out of commission the whole week on account of boiler repairs.

Surveys and technical work.-Inspection has been completed of all bridges on the Panama Railroad. Calculations of strains are under way.

Surveys have been made for tracks at Bas Matachin and for numerous tracks leading to the dumps.

Work on the extension of levels from Bas Obispo to Bohio is under way, and for the location of the center line from Pedro Miguel to La Boca.

The work of extension of culverts along the old Panama Railroad between the cut and Pedro Miguel Junction has been in progress.

[A. C. Harper, resident engineer, La Boca.]

Certain triangulation stations have been established and about 3,500 linear feet of clearing on branch lines, for topography, has been done.

[C. E. Davis, engineer of waterworks and sewers.]

PANAMA WATERWORKS.

Supply line from Rio Grande reservoir to Panama.-The entire amount of 16-inch pipe on hand has been laid, together with all specials. The completed pipe line extends to within a quarter mile of Miraflores station.

Distribution pipe in city of Panama.-Six hundred and thirty-five feet of 8-inch pipe and 141 feet of 10-inch pipe has been laid.

Panama sewers.-Nine hundred and eighty-two feet of 8-inch sewer pipe and 44 feet of 12-inch sewer pipe has been laid.

CULEBRA WATERWORKS.

Work has been continued on the 6-inch pipe line along the west side of the cut, for mechanical purposes.

Empire dam.-Work has been in progress of laying Decauville track from the Panama Railroad to site of dam.

GORGONA WATERWORKS.

Several hundred feet of 6-inch pipe has been laid leading to Bas Matachin shops.

COLON WATERWORKS.

Work has been in progress of laying Decauville track from the Panama Railroad at Mount Hope to site of dam.

[M. O. Johnson, supervising architect.]

At La Boca wharf 1,403 feet of piling has been driven and 6,000 feet of lumber put in place.

At Ancon Hospital a force of 180 men have been at work.

At Corozal a force of 300 men have been at work; 125 of them were engaged on the bachelor quarters.

At Culebra the bachelor quarters are completed, and the kitchen and diningroom service has been established.

At Cristobal a force of 289 men has been at work upon general repairs to buildings, hospitals, etc.

[C. A. Strom, mechanical engineer.]

Bas Matachin shop.-The overhauling of one locomotive has been completed and work upon two others continued.

Work upon three additional locomotives has been commenced.
Thirty-five French dump cars have been overhauled.

At the foundry the usual number of castings have been made.

Empire shop.-The work of overhauling two locomotives has been completed and work on three others continued. Work has been started on six additional locomotives.

Twelve dump cars have been overhauled and put in service.

Cristobal shop.-Commenced work of overhauling two Cook locomotives and one Rogers switch engine.

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