LOW-WATER SUPPLY OF THE CANAL. Doubts have been suggested to the committee as to the sufficiency of the water supply of the lock canal when the traffic becomes very great, and a few facts as to the matter may be not without value. The area of the basin of the Chagres above Bohio is about 700 square miles and above Gatun about 1,200 square miles. The area of lake surface above Bohio is 38.5 square miles and above Gatun approximately 110 square miles, or practically three times greater. The long and careful series of water measurements conducted at Bohio for fifteen years have made certainly known what volume of water the river will contribute during the three months when the natural flow falls below the requirements of the canal. The absolute minimum volume in this long period was 742 cubic feet per second at Bohio and about 1,225 at Gatun. Allowing 4 feet in depth over the entire lake surface as a reserve, we have an additional volume of 1,577 cubic feet per second available, making a total of 2,802 cubic feet per second to draw upon. Part of this must be allowed for unavoidable losses, for which my estimate is the following, based on the most careful study of all existing data: Claims that there may be leakages through the two gorges in the indurated clay at the Gatun dam have been made before the committee, and it has even been imagined that percolation under this indurated clay is possible, such losses suggesting danger to the low-water reserves. The answer is simple. Since losses due to evaporation and leakage at gates are well understood, and the allowance for lights, power, etc., is ample, the above figures would cover a loss by infiltration equal to half the low-water flow at Bohio before calling for larger reserves. Furthermore, as will appear below, the only effect of such purely hypothetical and exaggerated losses would be to hasten the construction of the Alajuela dam, and thus to secure an unlimited supply. Resuming, after this digression, the consideration of the low-watersupply problem, we find for the water available for lockage the difference between 2,802 and 1,437, that is to say, 1,365 cubic feet per second. The size and lifts of the locks being known, the calculation of the lockage prisms for one transit of the canal is readily made. It demands a continuous flow of 52 cubic feet per second. Having 1,365 cubic feet available, it is clear that 26 daily transits are provided for, which would accommodate an annual traffic of some 28,000,000 or 38,000,000 tons, depending on the average size of the vessels. When this limit is approaching it will be needful to provide a dam on the upper Chagres for additional reserves. An ideal location exists at Alajuela, some 10 miles above Gamboa, which is vastly preferable to the latter as a dam site. A design for a dam at this place was carefully elaborated by the engineers of the French company, for which the estimated cost was $2,400,000. With a water surface rising 130 feet above the bed of the river this masonry dam will afford a reserve yielding a flow of 2,074 cubic feet per second for ninety days, which is sufficient to support 40 daily lockages. Only 27 were assumed in the computations of the minority, giving, with the 26 above explained, 53 in all, which would correspond to an annual traffic of about 80,000,000 tons. Obviously this is a very conservative estimate of what the Chagres may be counted upon to supply. It is absolutely certain that there can be no deficiency of water for any conceivable traffic demands. In conclusion, I beg you to pardon me if I venture to suggest that as three months was a short time in which to study details in a problem involving so many variants as that of the best possible lock canal, a problem for which the New Panama Canal Company gave its engineers three years and nine months before rendering its report, it would be in my judgment wise to leave considerable latitude to the Commission in preparing the final working drawings, if this type be preferred by your committee. Too narrow limits in wording might tend to defeat the intention of the legislation. Very respectfully, HENRY L. ABBOT. ISTHMIAN CANAL. COMMITTEE ON INTEROCEANIC CANALS, UNITED STATES SENATE, Washington, D. C., Thursday, March 29, 1906, The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m. Present: Senators Millard (chairman), Kittredge, Dryden, Ankeny, Morgan, Taliaferro, and Simmons. STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. GEORGE W. DAVIS, U. S. ARMY, RETIRED. Senator KITTREDGE. You may state your name, General Davis. Senator KITTREDGE. And what is your age? General DAVIS. I am 67. Senator KITTREDGE. And your residence? General DAVIS. At present in this city; I have no fixed residence. Senator KITTREDGE. What has been your profession or business? General DAVIS. I have been in the Army since 1861, with a very brief interval. Senator KITTREDGE. And connected with the Engineering Corps during that time? General DAVIS. Connected with engineering works a part of that time; I have not been connected with the Engineering Corps as a corps, but with engineering works. I have been on duty under engineer officers, officers of the Corps of Engineers. Senator KITTREDGE. You were a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, which was appointed in March, 1904? General DAVIS. I was. Senator KITTREDGE. When did you go to the Isthmus? General DAVIS. On my first trip to the Isthmus I sailed from New York on, I think, the 2d, 3rd, or 4th of April, 1904. Senator KITTREDGE. In what capacity did you serve on the Isthmus, and how long. did you remain there? General DAVIS. I only remained there on that occasion about two weeks. The whole new Isthmian Canal Commission visited the Isthmus at that time and spent about two weeks there for general survey and observation and then returned to the United States. We arrived back at the end of April. At the beginning of May an Executive order was published containing instructions for the guidance of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and on the following day, the 10th of May, I again left for the Isthmus under orders of the President. appointing me governor of the Canal Zone and directing me to take general charge of the work then in progress on the Isthmus. I arrived there on the 17th of May and left there on the 10th of May of the following year. I was there a year, less a week. Senator KITTREDGE. In addition to your duties as governor of the Zone, what were your duties otherwise as a member of the Commission? General DAVIS. I was ordered by the President in this Executive order to take charge of the peace and good order on the Isthmus as governor of the Zone. I was ordered by the Isthmian Canal Commission, of which I was a member, to take charge of the work then in progress and to conduct that work until the arrival of the chief engineer, which was to occur presumably in a few weeks. I carried out those instructions, and on the 1st of July the chief engineer, Mr. Wallace, took over the engineering work and continued in charge of the engineering work thereafter, reporting through me to the Commission until the Commission arrived there in August and changed the channel of report, directing, then, that he report to the Commission and not through me as an intermediary or as a channel. Senator KITTREDGE. Were you a member of the engineering committee of the Isthmian Canal Commission to which you have referred? General DAVIS. Some time in the winter or autumn of 1904 the Isthmian Canal Commission divided up its members into committees. I think there were five in all, and I was made a member of any committee that might be visiting the Isthmus during such period. I was made ex officio a member of any committee that might be there. The only committee that ever came there as a committee to transact business was the engineering committee, consisting of Mr. Parsons and Mr. Burr. I became a member of that committee by virtue of the fact that they met on the Isthmus, and as such sat with them and deliberated. Senator KITTREDGE. Where did you live while on the Isthmus? General DAVIS. I lived for two months after I arrived there on the top of the Culebra Hill, in one of the vacant buildings that the French had turned over to us, just alongside of the Culebra excavation. After I had succeeded in getting an old building fixed up that the superintendent of wagons or teams or teamsters had used under the French régime, when I had had it made habitable, I moved into that building, on the outskirts of the city of Panama, which was more convenient for my purposes. Senator KITTREDGE. I suppose you were frequently over the route of the canal? General DAVIS. Oh, many, many, many times. Senator KITTREDGE. And you kept in touch with what was going on? General DAVIS. I tried to. I think I was intimately acquainted with it. Senator KITTREDGE. The engineering situation as well as governmental features? General DAVIS. I had very close and very intimate relations with the chief engineer, Mr. Wallace. I became quite well acquainted with him, and he was quite cordial with me, and there appeared to be no matters going on between us of which each was not thoroughly aware. He told me of his plans, of his methods, of his processes; and in like manner I talked with him about my business. While there was no |