Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/426

Typical Cross Section adopted by the Board of Consulting Engineers for the Culebra Cut. K. 54.41.

length of 1,000 feet, but with intermediate gates to conserve time and water. The committee called attention to the increasing difficulties of constructing a dam at or near Bohio, disclosed by additional borings, and condemned as impracticable a dam at Gatun where borings to 172 and to 139 feet below sea-level did not reach bed-rock.

The data, which the commission had instructed the committee to bring to Washington, were not submitted with the report, neither did such data accompany a progress report of the chief engineer, Mr. John F. Wallace, which was received a few weeks later. The type of canal was, however, quite fully discussed by Mr. Wallace, and his report contained the recommendation

that no temporary or tentative plan be adopted that will interfere with the final adoption of the "sea-level plan," which it is hoped will ultimately receive the favorable consideration of the commission.

The committee report, however, brought before the commission a definite recommendation, relating to the type of the canal. In the

Fig. 1. Progress of Excavation on the Panama Canal under the United States, as Compared with Total Excavation Required.		Fig. 2. Diagram showing Relation of French and American Excavation on Panama Canal to Total Estimated Amount.