Senator SIMMONS. That would bring them both within those two black lines?

General HAINS. Yes, sir.

Senator SIMMONS. There would not be room for them to pass at all? General HAINS. This being the slope on which the canal is built they would just about touch the ground there when they are 5 feet apart. Senator SIMMONS. This would be about 38 feet at that point [Indicating]?

General HAINS. No; that would be about 37 feet. This would be 38 down here.

I want to say one thing more about this. Thirty-eight feet is the draft that has been given by the agent of the company in a letter. Thirty-eight feet in salt water means over 39 feet in fresh water, and the sea-level canal is going to have fresh water in it, even in that part of it, a good deal of the time, so that 38 feet does not tell the whole story.

Senator DRYDEN. Would so small a margin as practically 1 foot in the depth be safe for a big vessel?

General HAINS. I should say it was very unsafe.

Senator KITTREDGE. General, do you remember whether the report of the majority of the Board of Consulting Engineers contemplates the construction of passing places?

General HAINS. I remember that the Consulting Board makes no provision whatever for passing places.

Senator KITTREDGE. Is that a difficult proposition from an engineering standpoint?

General HAINS. Is it a difficult one?

Senator KITTREDGE. Yes.

General HAINS. No, sir; not at all difficult.

Senator KITTREDGE. Does it involve much extra expense to construct passing places?

General HAINS. Yes, sir; it involves considerable expense. I think I have something covering that right here in these notes.

Senator MORGAN. Suppose we let the General go on and make his statement right through.

The CHAIRMAN. I think that would be much better, and we would get along faster.

Senator MORGAN. We are breaking in on it and getting it confused The CHAIRMAN. General, if you will go right along from where you left off, and finish your statement, we will be glad to hear you.

General HAINS. Yes, sir; I think that would be the better way, and then you can come back.

It is to be noted that the narrow part of the canal referred to is the part where the current will be the swiftest. Under the plans of the Board, the waters of the Chagres River, as well as its tributaries, are taken into the canal, and may often produce a velocity of nearly 4 feet a second. Moreover, the part of the canal where this takes place is the part that has the greatest amount of curvature. That is that part down there [indicating]. This, together with the swift current, will render it sufficiently difficult for a single one of these large ships to be safely managed, even though she have the entire canal to herself. The canal, if subject to such restrictions, would inevitably be deemed inadequate, and its widening demanded.

It is further to be noted that this narrow part of the canal is in cutting, which consists largely of material easily abraded by the current, the result of which would cause a flattening of the slopes and shoaling on the bottom.

In the Suez Canal there are numerous passing places between Port Said and Ismailia, a distance of 47 miles, which is just about the length of this canal. There are 14 passing places in that distance.

The tendency of any stream to establish a tortuous course as a part of its regimen is a well-established hydraulic proposition. This tendency is much increased if it flows between banks of erosive materials, and if it receives sediment-bearing tributaries. It is submitted that this part of the canal must, therefore, be considered as partaking of the characteristics of a sedimentary river, under which it will establish, in time, its own regimen. It is not predicted that it will form the large sinuosities of a sedimentary river flowing through an alluvial plain, but that it will establish sufficient indirections of course and currents to render it unnavigable, as a canal 150 feet wide, for ships of the dimensions for which the law directs that provision shall be made. A tributary discharging a few thousand second-feet in flood into a channel of about 8,000 square feet cross section will present an obstacle which ships can not pass without being deflected from their courses and thrust against the opposite bank. This is an immediate difficulty, but in time this influent tributary, working during low stages and in floods, will deposit a cone of sediment at its mouth and will erode the opposite bank. This erosion of one bank will be followed by an erosion of the other bank at a point lower down and the deposition of the eroded material in the bed of the canal. This is the law of flowing water carrying sedimentary material; and in this way the alignment of the canal will be impared and indirection of course and of currents established which will ultimately prove obstructive to navigation.

Senator KITTREDGE. May I interrupt you right there? What is the character of the material right opposite the Gamboa dam?

General HAINS. Oh, it is hard material up there. I am not speaking about that part of the canal, Senator. I am speaking of the lower part of the canal, down between the Mindi River and Bohio, or even up farther than that.

Senator MORGAN. Ten or 12 miles?

General HAINS. Yes, sir-oh, yes, sir; there is more than that.

It

is this part along here I am speaking of [indicating]. There is about 20 miles of it which is only 150 feet wide-19 miles, to be accurate. I believe that is what it is.

Senator KITTREDGE. How much current will there be in the sealevel canal from Gamboa to the Atlantic Ocean?

General HAINS. The current down in the lower part is supposed to reach 2.6 miles per hour, or about 4 feet per second.

Senator KITTREDGE. Why do you say "supposed?"

General HAINS. It is calculated to do it.

Senator KITTREDGE. Where is that calculation made?

General HAINS. In the office of the Commission. It was made by the Advisory Board itself.

Senator KITTREDGE. Is that a sufficient current to accomplish the result you indicate?

General HAINS. Yes, sir; I think so.

Senator MORGAN. Such calculations are entirely reliable in engineering?

General HAINS. There is only one question about it, Senator, in my mind; I do not know but what those currents may be a little swifter. The Consulting Board admit that there may be a velocity of about 2.6 feet per second, but I am not sure but what there will be more.

Senator MORGAN. You have formulæ by which you make the computations that are uniformly used everywhere?

General HAINS. Oh, yes, sir; yes, sir.

Another reason why I do not like the sea-level canal is because it requires many more dams, and one dam which is much larger than any required by the other plan. I do not mean to say that any of these dams are going to be difficult engineering problems; but they are there.

Senator MORGAN. Are these dams that you speak of for the purpose of producing divergence of water to keep it from flowing into the

canal!

General HAINS. Yes, sir; there are about thirty of them. There are about thirty dams between here [indicating] and Gamboa that have to be built before you can build your sea-level canal.

Senator DRYDEN. Do you say that there is one dam larger than the proposed dam at Gatun?

General HAINS. Yes, sir; the Gamboa dam is larger. That holds a head of 170 feet, while this one down here only holds a head of 85 feet; but there are over 30 dams to be built along that route.

Senator DRYDEN. What is the length of that large dam there for the sea-level canal?

General HAINS. This one [indicating]?

Senator DRYDEN. Yes.

General HAINS. The dam is in three pieces. The big section is something like 2,000 feet, as I remember.

Senator DRYDEN. Three thousand or 2,000?

General HAINS. Two thousand. I think it is about that. It is on the drawings. I do not remember those figures.

Senator MORGAN. General (if the committee will excuse me for asking a question that is momentarily applicable and very important, I believe), taking into consideration the cost of the thirty dams you speak of as regulating the flow of the affluents of the Chagres River into the canal, is it not probable that the cost of a sea-level canal between Gamboa and, we will say, Mindi or Gatun would be less if it were dug right down through the marginal peaks of the Chagres River on the right bank, and the dump thrown into the river?

General HAINS. I have never investigated that question, Senator; I could not say.

of

Senator MORGAN. You would certainly get rid of a great many the affluents by such a course, by digging your canal so as to hug the mountain here right along down and throwing the dump into the valley of the river. I do not mean the river bed, but I mean the lowlands.

General HAINS. I can not answer your question, Senator. I have never given sufficient study to that particular project. What I wanted to state now was one of the reasons why I do not favor a sea-level project. As I stated, there are about 30 dams along the line of that canal that are to be built.

Senator MORGAN. Between Gamboa and the bay?

General HAINS. Between Mindi, say, down near the end, and Gamboa. The Chagres River sometimes discharges in the neighborhood of 100,000 cubic feet a second at Gamboa.

Senator MORGAN. What rise would that be above the ordinary surface?

General HAINS. About 40 feet. Before you can build your canal you will have to divert the waters of the Chagres. Now, if you do not have any of those big freshets while you are building this diversion, you will have no trouble. But this diversion channel is not contemplated, or has not been contemplated by anybody that I know of, to be anything like as big as the Chagres River itself. The consequence is, if you take the discharge of the Chagres River into this diversion channel, you are going to have a great, big river going down to the sea alongside of your canal while your canal is being built; and if it breaks in on you, my opinion is that the damage will be immense. Just exactly what it will be I do not know; no one can predict what it will be. It will depend on how big a freshet it is.

After the canal is finished these diversions are to be dispensed with, and all these streams, both the Chagres and the other tributary streams along there, are to be taken into the canal-that is, most of them. There are four or five down at the lower end that are permanently diverted.

Senator MORGAN. Along with that flood of 40 feet at Gamboa in the Chagres?

General HAINS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. They are all to be taken into the channel of the canal?

General HAINS. The river now is known to rise at Gamboa about 40 feet.

Senator MORGAN. Yes.

General HAINS. And if you get a rise of anything like 40 feet in your diversion channel, you can easily see that when you cross the river you will have to have a tolerably good-sized dam to keep the

water out.

Senator MORGAN. Let me ask you if it is a fact now that a rise of 46 feet is recorded at Bohio?

General HAINS. Forty-six feet?

Senator MORGAN. Yes.

General HAINS. No, sir; I think about 39 is about the highest that they ever had any record of, Senator, at Bohio.

Senator DRYDEN. Then this danger that you speak of, of the water of the Chagres breaking out of this conduit proposed to be constructed, would be present during the whole time of the construction of the canal-somewhere from twelve to twenty years?

General HAINS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. Just there there is a point of interest in my mind. which I would like to have solved. The conduit you speak of means a channel running up toward the sea through the coastal plain?

General HAINS. No, sir; not through the coastal plain. I will explain it here from this map, Senator. This is a large map [producing new map]. Here is the Chagres River. Here is a part of the old French diversion. There it goes, along there, until it runs into the river. Every little while they make use of the river for the. purpose of

reducing the cost of this diversion channel-so they use that, and that is the plan in the Consulting Board's project.

Senator MORGAN. General, where is Gamboa on that plan, please? General HAINS. It is up here. It is not on this map, Senator; it is up here farther.

What I wanted to show you by this is about these dams. Here is a diversion channel, you see, coming along here, and here is the canal [indicating]. This canal crosses the river there [indicating]. You will have to have a dam on this side to keep this diversion channel from discharging into the canal while you are constructing it. You will have to have another dam here, because this is the diversion channel that is part of the old river used for diversion, and you will have to have another dam here to keep that water from going into the canal, or into the partially constructed canal; and the same way here and here and here [indicating]. Here is this diversion channel, passing along from the old bed of the river, going up this way, into the Frijoles. Then it goes down the Frijoles into there [indicating]. But you must put a dam down here, and you must put a dam there [indicating] to keep that water from going down into your canal.

The Consulting Board estimated three and a half millions of dollars for these diversion channels, for the dams, and all the necessary adjuncts of taking these waters afterwards into the canal itself. Our Commission went over those estimates and came to the conclusion that the estimate was about six and a half millions too little.

Senator MORGAN. They estimated it at three millions?

General HAINS. Three and a half, and I think we made it about tensomewhere along there. I do not remember the exact figure, but it is about ten millions.

Senator KITTREDGE. Before you start in on that subject I would like to ask you one or two questions on the subject of the water supply. What is the variation in height of the water at the Gatun dam at high water and at low water?

General HAINS. I think they count on about 3 feet variation.
Senator KITTREDGE. Is it not about 5 feet?

General HAINS. No, sir; I do not think there will be as much as 5; and it is not necessary, really, to have any material fluctuation in that. level. If you build a dam at Gamboa or Alhajuela so as to control the water up there, control the flow into that big lake, I do not think there will be as much as 3 feet.

Senator KITTREDGE. A dam at Gamboa or Alhajuela is not contemplated under the minority or lock plan, is it?

General HAINS. It is not contemplated; no.

Senator KITTREDGE. Then why do you speak of that feature?

General HAINS. A dam there, at one of those places, is provisionally contemplated if ever the traffic through the canal should become very great.

Senator KITTREDGE. So that the supply of the water should be diminished to such an extent that it should become necessary to use the additional water; is that it?

General HAINS. No; it is so as to hold back a sufficient amount of water to supply the needs of the dry season.

Senator KITTREDGE. According to your statement, then, there is at variation of 3 feet?