Simply as a question of storage, now, and as having nothing to do with locks, I have here some figures as to the storage capacity of Gamboa Lake. The two parts of the Board, the minority and the majority, treat the Chagres River from two standpoints, separate and distinct. The majority treat the Chagres River as a nuisance to be gotten rid of the best way we can. The minority treat it as entirely essential to their plan to supply water for lockage. If they could not have that river to supply the water, they would be in a bad way. If we did not have the river for the sea-level purposes, we would be in a very pleasant frame of mind. But it is there and it has got to be controlled.

Now, these figures are to show to what extent the devices of the majority will affect its control.

The capacity, computed from actual survey of the lake between level 80 and 170 feet above sea level is, in round numbers, 38,000,000,000 cubic feet. The mean or average gauged flow of the Chagres River at Gamboa, as determined by General Abbot, is 3,164 cubic feet per second. That total flow for one year would therefore be, in cubic feet, 365 by 24 by 60 by 60 by 3,164, or 99,779,904,000 cubic feet. The lake would therefore contain nearly one-third the entire year's flow, floods excluded, without any discharge.

The greatest flood in the Chagres that has been heard of in fifty years was the one in 1879, when the water rose about 36 feet at Gamboa at its maximum, remaining at the level for a very short time. General Abbot computes this flood as sending out an average of 65,250 cubic feet per second for a period of forty-eight hours. This quantity is 48 by 60 by 60 by 65,250, or 11,275,100,000 cubic feet. If meanwhile there had been discharging through the regulating works 15.000 cubic feet per second, the total for forty-eight hours would be 48 by 60 by 60 by 15,000, or 2,592,000,000 cubic feet and the part of the flood stored would be 8,683,100,000 cubic feet.

Supposing the level of the reservoir to be standing at 80 when the flood began, the flood would raise the water in the lake to about +119 above sea, and there would still be a remaining capacity for more than four more floods of the same volume before reaching 170. But supposing there was no discharge through the regulating works while the flood continued and the whole should be drawn off at the rate of 15,000 second-feet (which, be it remembered, includes 3,164 second-feet representing the mean flow), and it would only take about ten days to spill this phenomenal flood.

It should not be forgotten that we have very complete data for the flow of the Chagres at Gamboa more than for any other station on the Isthmus. The data of actual gaugings available to the computer covered all the years from 1890 to 1904, both inclusive, and for every month of the one hundred and eighty save nine.

It may be deduced from the above that a dam with crest at 160 and water level at 150 might be adequate to meet the necessities of the case. Its storage capacity, between 80 and 150, would be nearly 24,000,000 cubic feet, or double the storage necessary to store two maximum floods.

Those are the principal matters, gentlemen, that I had prepared myself on. I have covered a good deal of ground, perhaps, or I have tried to.

Senator MORGAN. I suppose we have now gotten through with the main discussion

Senator KITTREDGE. I should think this would be a good point to adjourn.

Senator MORGAN. I would suggest that if General Davis is through with his statement I would like to ask him one preliminary question, turning his attention to the government of the canal.

Is there any canal zone at Suez?

General DAVIS. Yes; there is a canal zone from the franchise which the Khedive gave to De Lesseps.

Senator MORGAN. What is the width?

General DAVIS. Very irregular in width. I could not tell you its width or shape, but in some places the area over which the Suez Company has fiscal control-they have no judicial control anywhereSenator MORGAN. That is what I wanted to get at.

General DAVIS. No; they have not.

Senator MORGAN. And they have no military control?
General DAVIS. No.

Senator MORGAN. And have no other control except such as is furnished by the laws of Egypt?

General DAVIS. Yes; that is all.

Senator MORGAN. That is all I wanted to get at as a preliminary. I wanted to ask you whether the area of the country through which this canal runs is at all populated.

General DAVIS. There are three cities-Port Said, with fifty or sixty thousand; Ismailia, with about 8,000, and the so-called "city of Suez," on the Red Sea, with three or four thousand inhabitants. There are no other inhabitants along the line of the canal; it is a desert. The water is brought from the Nile to supply these cities and also to supply a few gardens and a few little parks in those towns. Senator MORGAN. I merely wanted to get at the question of how it was governed and by whom.

General DAVIS. There are several questions that are analogous to this type of canal, and I have made a list of some. I have made these titles: Earthquakes, Military questions affecting type, Submerged land, Malicious destruction of the canal possible, Time or method of construction, Panama Railroad management. Those are a few of the headings.

Senator MORGAN. We will go over those before we close your examination. We will take them up in such order as the members of

the committee may prefer.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you through with the gentleman for this evening?

Senator MORGAN. Yes.

(Thereupon, at 4.20 o'clock, the committee adjourned until tomorrow, Friday, March 30, 1906, at 10.30 o'clock a. m.)

Approximately.

a Reported draft as stated by owners.

e Estimated draft as computed by ratio of molded depth to draft in case of 12 vessels whose draft is stated above; molded depth x0.737=draft.

d Depth as stated in Lloyds, probably an error.

Grosser Kurfurst and Barbarossa have passed Suez Canal.