an excellent idea of the Pacific approach to the canal and the location of the fortifications which are to protect this entrance to the great waterway.

If several days are spent at Panama, at least one of them should be reserved to be used for a special visit to Culebra, an inspection of the construction and engineering administration building with its relief map of the canal and its model of the locks, which are explained by an experienced lecturer, a look at the hotels and homes of the employes, the Y. M. C. A. building, as showing the welfare work, and an intimate view of the famous Cut itself. The Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks might be included in this excursion but are better saved for another day. Balboa, with the construction of terminal wharves, a dry dock, repair shops, coal deposits, warehouses, and supply depots, will be an interesting point during the next two years, while on the canal side of Ancon Hill near Balboa will presently be built the permanent main administration building of the canal and the

zone.

At Ancon, a day can be instructively spent in visiting the civil administration building and its various offices to see how the work is carried on, the schools to note how the young American transplanted to the tropics is taught "to shoot," the hospitals

to learn how carefully the sick or injured are doctored and nursed, the police and fire department to be convinced that life and property are both well guarded, and the courts to hear real justice dispensed and the law respected.

If the traveler is fortunate enough to be invited to the homes of any of the officials at Ancon, Culebra, or elsewhere, he will not only enjoy the call, lunch, or dinner, but have an opportunity of observing first-handed the interior of remarkably comfortable and sanitary houses usually made delightfully attractive and hospitable by the deft touch and finesse of the women members of the family. If he is at the Tivoli on the night of a ball, he will see men, women, and young ladies of such bearing, character, looks, and dress that he would be proud to class them as coming from his own home. Very few anemic faces or tropical complexions will catch the eye.

If he will take time to watch both men and women playing lawn tennis, riding horseback, walking, or otherwise playing in their hours of recreation, he will discover few signs of tropical enervation. If, moreover, he should be invited to join in a friendly game of bridge, he will soon find out that the tropical climate does not lessen the skill of the canal staff or of the feminine contingent who like the game there as much as they do in New York or Washington.

CONDENSED FACTS AND FIGURES

A few live facts and figures, not too dry and statistical, but interesting and instructive, should be given at the beginning of the chapter describing the actual canal.

They answer a multitude of questions without the necessity of hunting through numerous pages to find them. They have the effect, at the same time, of whetting the mental appetite for more facts.

What follows before taking up the more extended details is based on the admirable official handbook of the Isthman Canal Commission, which is compiled by the experienced writer and efficient Secretary of the Canal Commission, Joseph Bucklin Bishop.

When a steamship leaves the deep water of the Caribbean Sea and enters the channel of the canal at Colon it will travel just 50 miles before it reaches deep water of the Pacific. The actual air line, however, from shore-line to shore-line is only 40 miles. This vessel, if it proceeds directly through without delays, will require only from 10 to 12 hours for the passage. Of this time, 3 hours will be occupied in being lifted and lowered through 6 locks, 3 at Gatun, 1 at Pedro Miguel, and 2 at Miraflores.

These locks are arranged in parallel pairs. There are, therefore, 12 locks in all. Each lock chamber is 1,000 feet long and 110 feet wide. Their concrete walls vary from about 50 to 90 feet in height, according to location, and the gates or leaves of the locks have corresponding dimensions.

The minimum channel width at bottom is 300 feet through Culebra Cut; the maximum is in Gatun Lake, 1,000 feet. The average depth is 45 feet, though in part of Gatun Lake it will be 85 feet. This lake has a surface of 164 square miles and the greatest limit of its reach is 32 miles. The Gatun dam forming the lake is 11⁄2 miles long, -mile wide at its base, and 115 feet high at its crest.

The day Col. Goethals, the great chief of administration and construction, says the work is done, over 212,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock will have been excavated by the Americans since May 4, 1904. The French excavated approximately 80,000,000 yards, but only 30,000,000 were utilized by the Americans. The actual total excavation for the present canal will,

This diagram is a striking illustration of the vast volume of excavation at Panama

therefore, be nearly 242,000,000 yards. This would be equal to a tunnel or subway 13 to 14 feet in diameter through the 8,000 miles of the earth, or build a pyramid like that pictured above!

The concrete used in the locks, spillways, dams, etc., will ap- i proximate 5,000,000 cubic yards. This would build a wall 12 feet high, 8 feet thick, for 266 miles, the distance from New York to Washington.

The Panama Railroad is 47 miles long from Colon to Panama. Its relocation caused by the lake and excavations cost $9,000,000. The total cost of the canal, including payment to the French Company of $40,000,000 and to the Panama Government of $10,000,000, is estimated at $375,000,000. The value of the work done by the French is placed at about $25,000,000 and the value of all French property at nearly $43,000,000.

About 35,000 to 40,000 have been the average number of men

at work on the canal. Of these about 5,000 are Americans. The latter form what is called the "Gold roll," as they are paid in United States money. The remainder, largely Jamaica negroes, form the "Silver roll," and are paid in Panama silver

currency.

The Canal Zone is a strip of land 10 miles wide, 5 miles on either side of the center line of the canal channel, reaching from deep water of the Atlantic or Caribbean to deep water of the Pacific. It covers an area of 448 square miles and by treaty with Panama is under the sovereignty and complete control of the United States Government.

The administration of this zone and the direction of the canal work rests in the hands of an Isthmian Canal Commission, authorized by Congress and appointed by the President, of which Col. George W. Goethals, U. S. A., is Chairman and Chief Engineer. His instructions give him almost autocratic power which, however, he uses most wisely and effectively. He is assisted by the following other members of the Commission,

When the canal is completed, 242,000,000 cubic yards, including
used French excavation of 30,000,000 yards, of earth and rock will
have been excavated. The same amount of excavation would make
a tunnel fourteen feet in diameter, 8,000 miles long, through the very
heart of the earth, sufficiently large to permit the passing of a New
York subway train.