Part 5 (2/2)
That's why I was on my way back to the States; but guess that holiday'll have to wait. I'm keen to get back to work.”
From the open car in which the party was accommodated he pointed out the various features of the isthmus, and in particular the works of the ca.n.a.l. And gradually Jim gathered the fact that this undertaking upon which his country had set its heart was gigantic, to say the least of it.
”No one knows what we're doing save those who've been here,” said Phineas, a note of pride in his voice. ”Back home there's folks ready enough to criticize and shout that things aren't being done right; but they ought to come right out here before opening their mouths. You've got an idea of the ca.n.a.l, of course?”
Jim reddened. To be truthful, his own struggle to make a way in this world had occupied most of his attention. He was naturally interested in all that concerned his own country, but even though so near to the isthmus he had never been farther than Colon when the s.h.i.+p put into port, and whilst there had merely observed rather a large number of policemen, both white and black. Of the huge army of workmen engaged in the ca.n.a.l enterprise he had not caught a glimpse.
”It's an eye-opener, this,” he admitted. ”I had no idea there were so many men, or so much machinery, though if I had thought for a little I could have guessed that there must be a bustle. As to the scheme of the ca.n.a.l, I haven't more than the vaguest idea.”
”And I can't give you much information here. We'll want to get aboard an inspection car and run right through. That'll be a job for to-morrow.
We'll have the inspector's car, and run along to the other side. But, see here, this ca.n.a.l's the biggest thing in ca.n.a.ls that's ever been thought of. The Suez Ca.n.a.l don't hold a candle to it. The Kiel Ca.n.a.l is an infant when compared with what this will be when it's finished.
There's fifty miles, or thereabouts, of solid dirt between Colon and Panama, and America has decided to get to at that dirt and cut a way clear through it, a way not only big enough to take s.h.i.+ps of to-day, but to take s.h.i.+ps of to-morrow, s.h.i.+ps that'll make the world open its eyes and exclaim.”
The very mention of the work made Jim gasp. He asked for particulars promptly. ”It'll take a heap of time, I expect,” he said. ”Reckon a ca.n.a.l a mile long and fifty feet wide by thirty deep isn't dug in a day.”
”Nor hardly in a year. But we're not digging all the way,” explained Phineas. ”America has selected what is known as the high-level ca.n.a.l; that is, she's not just digging a track clear through from Atlantic to Pacific, a tide-level ca.n.a.l as you might call it, for there are difficulties against such a scheme. To begin with, there's a tide to be reckoned with at Panama, while this Atlantic end has none; which means your water level at the Pacific side is different from that at the Atlantic. Then there's river water to be contended with. This isthmus gets a full share of rain, particularly near the Atlantic, and the rivers get packed with water in a matter of a few hours. Well, you've got to do something, or that flood will swamp your ca.n.a.l, wash away your works, and do other damage.”
”Then the high level has fewer difficulties?” asked Jim.
”You may say so, though the job is big enough in all conscience. Shortly put, it's this. We begin the ca.n.a.l by dredging in Limon Bay, right here beside Colon, and cut our dirt away, in all for a matter of just over seven miles. Then we build three tiers of double locks, which will take any vessel, and which will float them up in steps to the 85-foot level.
Once up there the s.h.i.+p steams into a huge lake where there's dry land to-day. We get that lake by damming the Chagres River right there before us, at Gatun, throwing the water back into a long natural hollow, and when the work is finished we shall have a body of water there four-fifths the size of Lake Geneva. Anyway, it'll allow a steamer to get along under her own power till she arrives at the other end of the lake at Obispo. Even then she uses her own power, though she has to slow down. She enters what we call the Culebra cut, just nine miles long, where we are burrowing our way through the hills. That's one of the biggest of our jobs. You'll be interested when you see it. We've a small army of men at work, and rock drills and steam shovels are going all day, while dirt trains travel to and fro more often than electrics in the New York subway. Then comes a lock at Pedro Miguel, and another at Milaflores, which let our s.h.i.+ps down to Pacific level. Way down at that end we've a lot of dredging to do to clear the below-sea track of the ca.n.a.l.”
Indeed it was no wonder that Phineas found it a matter of impossibility to describe the gigantic, herculean task which America has undertaken.
Moreover, it may be forgiven our hero if he failed, in such a short s.p.a.ce of time, fully to comprehend what was being done. A ca.n.a.l was being fas.h.i.+oned, that he knew well enough, and now Phineas had given him a rough idea of its direction, and of the methods to be employed to obtain a waterway from one ocean to the other. The rest had necessarily to be left to the imagination, and to the moment when clear plans of the works could be studied.
”But you know a bit about it, and that's good for the present,” said Phineas. ”I'm not going to give you a bad headache right off by throwing more particulars at you, though I fancy you'd be interested to know just one or two items.”
”And those?” asked Jim, by no means bored with the description. In fact, like any healthy youngster, he was intensely interested in this ca.n.a.l, and was burning with impatience to see all the machinery employed, the methods used by the engineers and their staff to bring about the various works. ”I'd give something to see the lake,” he admitted. ”Almost as big as that of Geneva? Gee! That's a whopper.”
”You may say so,” agreed Phineas, again a tinge of pride in his voice.
”There'll be somewhere about 160 square miles of water in that lake, and a fleet will be able to lie to in it. Those locks at Gatun, which are to be double--one for steamers going up, and the other for s.h.i.+ps coming down--will each give a usable length of 1100 feet, which is a good 300 feet longer than any s.h.i.+p yet afloat. They'll be 110 feet wide, and have a minimum depth of 41 feet. Put that all together, and remember that when the gates of the locks are shut, and water allowed to come down, the biggest battles.h.i.+p yet heard of will be lifted solid just about 32 feet, and then warped on into another lock as like the last as two peas.
In less than an hour we'll raise a s.h.i.+p up to our high-level ca.n.a.l from the Atlantic, and we'll do it, sir, as easy as you lift rowing boats down on the rivers.”
Phineas went hot at the thought of the undertaking, and, looking at him, Jim could see that the man was filled with a huge pride, with a tremendous fixity of purpose, the courage and tenacity to push on with a labour which his country had begun, and which the honour of the nation demanded should be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. And in a little while Jim understood that there was not a white employee engaged on the isthmus who did not dream of the day when the ca.n.a.l would be opened, when their own countrymen, some of whom at this moment were ready to discount their labours, would be amongst the keenest admirers of the finished task.
”But guess it's time we thought of the house,” said Phineas, dragging his attention away from the works before him. ”I've a shanty way up the hill there, with a housekeeper to look to it for me. She'll take care of Miss Sadie.”
They descended from the car and slowly trudged up the hill. Then Phineas gave them a welcome to his home.
”Looks cool and nice; don't it?” he remarked, as they ascended a flight of steps leading on to a wide veranda. ”I can see you looking at my windows, young man. Well, we don't have any out here. A chap gets to live without them easily enough. There's just copper gauze right round the veranda, and the same over the window openings. Most days it's so hot one doesn't think of their absence. And if a cold spell comes, one can easily put on something warmer. Now we'll get along in and feed. Ha, Mrs. Jones, that's you again! You didn't think to see me back so soon, till I telephoned from Colon. This is Miss Sadie, and this is Jim, the young man who rescued me. We're just hungry, so we'll come right in if things are ready, and Tom here, and Sam, and Ching can get round to the kitchen. You'll find 'em useful boys.”
The widow who looked to Phineas's affairs was a pleasant woman, and gave our hero and his sister a real welcome. As to the negroes, though she looked at them askance at first, she rapidly found them a blessing. For Tom installed himself as butler unasked, while Sam carried dishes to and fro. Ching settled down to the work of was.h.i.+ng up the things as if he had been brought to the isthmus for that very purpose.
”All of which just makes things slide along as if they were oiled,” said Phineas with a glad smile, as he lolled on his veranda afterwards.
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