by the International Survey Commission. The surveys were accomplished and the conclusions reached in a time so incredibly short as to cast doubt upon their reliability. The estimate of cost was 834,000,000 francs, and of time eight years, both remarkably lower than those of the year before by the technical commission. The estimate of cost was still further reduced to 685,000,000 francs by de Lesseps himself, leaving it less than sixty per cent of the original estimate, which was considered low by competent persons. Later a firm of contractors, Couvreux & Hersent, favorable to the views of de Lesseps, estimated the cost of the canal to be 500,000,000 francs not including general administration and financing, and they undertook a contract on a cost-plus-profit basis. The annual revenue of the completed canal was estimated at 90,000,000 francs. The stock issue of 300,000,000 francs was doubly subscribed. The contractors performed the two years of preparatory work at cost plus six per cent. By the end of that time, December, 1882, it was clear that the predicted unit costs and rates of progress could not be reached, and the contract was annulled on the contractors' proposal.

The Superior Advisory Commission, composed of men eminent as engineers and technicians, was formed in 1881. This commission was dominated by de Lesseps through his personal force, and their acts did not result in clearing the situation.

To carry on the work abandoned by the closing of the contract, the canal company in 1883 secured the services of M. Dingler, an able engineer, to supervise

and direct the operations on the Isthmus. The developments of the next few years were: a voluminous report by the chief engineer on the sea-level canal project; discovery that the quantity to be excavated was 120,000,000 cubic meters, rather than the 75,000,000 estimated by the International Commission, or the 45,000,000 estimated by the International Congress; the award of a series of small contracts and establishment of work yards; the realization in July, 1885, that less than one-tenth of the excavation had been completed although four of the eight years allowed for construc- `-tion had elapsed; the return to the former estimate of 1,200,000,000 francs; a reorganization involving the award of large contracts for completing the canal in five sections by 1889; the announcement by de Lesseps, in 1886, after a visit to Panama, of his utmost confidence in the speedy completion of the canal; further successful bond issues; renewed attacks on the feasibility of the sea-level canal, based on reports by expert engineers of incontrovertible facts, but ineffective on de Lesseps; the weakening of public and financial support, and the final capitulation of de Lesseps to the lock-canal idea, but only as a temporary expedient to hasten completion and to be followed by a deepening to sea level. These events were followed by the ineffectual attempt to issue a series of lottery bonds on authority of the Chamber of Deputies, which foreshadowed the financial débâcle of the enterprise. Receivers were soon appointed and the affairs of the company were wound up. De Lesseps and his son were tried, convicted and sentenced by the courts of France

to pay a fine and serve a term of five years imprisonment. The sentence against the son was reversed, and that against the father was never executed. He became a complete wreck, both physical and mental, and died in 1893. The company had actually expended about 1,300,000,000 francs and had accomplished about 55,000,000 cubic yards of excavation on the permanent work, or less than one-half the total on the French plan.

After careful investigation and a great deal of difficult work, the receiver, in 1894, launched a new company to complete the lock canal. An extension of time had been secured from the Colombian government through the agency of Lieutenant Wyse. The first step of the new company was to reinvestigate the whole subject of the canal, which was done through the appointment of the "Comité Technique" of engineers of international eminence, including two Americans. Their work was most thorough, comprehensive and to the point. Later, in accordance with the charter of the company, a commission of five members was appointed to make final recommendations, who reported:

that the adopted project is practicable under the conditions of time and expense indicated, and that the New Company has demonstrated that by works which will not exceed an outlay of about one hundred million dollars, and a duration of about ten years, it is possible to open the Panama Canal to extensive commerce, to remove the obstacle which the Isthmus opposes to international communication, and thus to complete an immense work that interests all the nations of the world and is the greatest which human genius has ever planned.

FIG. 2.-Culebra Cut, Culebra, showing steam shovels working at elevation

FIG. 3.-Culebra Cut, Culebra, showing break in east bank of canal. Amount

of material involved, 320,000 cu. yds. February 11, 1912.