recorded at Culebra on April 24 established a new high temperature record at that station.

The rainfall during 1913 was below normal at all stations except Brazos Brook, Colon, and Porto Bello. The heaviest precipitation for the year was 171.19 inches at Porto Bello, and the minimum was 59.54 inches at Balboa.

The wind movement over the Canal Zone for the year was slightly above normal. North and northwest winds prevailed. March was the windiest month at all stations, and November the month of least wind movement.

Between June 27 and December 27, 1913, the Gatun Lake level rose from plus 48.22 to plus 84.7. Since the latter date it has been controlled by the spillway gates between 85.14 and 84.13. During the year it was possible for the first time to determine the velocity which would be caused in the canal prism at Gamboa by floods in the pper Chagres. On May 26, with a discharge at Alhajuela of 16,000 fet per second, the velocity at Gamboa Bridge was 0.65 mile per our, the lake level being at 84.92 and rising to 84.98. On June 30, with a discharge at Alhajuela of 20,050 feet per second, the velocity Gamboa Bridge was 1.05 miles per hour, with the lake at 84.88 to 84.86.

For further particulars attention is invited to Appendix A-3.

GENERAL SURVEYS.

In addition to setting corner and grade stakes for building lots in on and Panama, setting grades for fill in Colon, making surveys d preparing maps of estates and parcels of land in dispute before e joint land commission, making surveys and inspections for the partment of law, and performing a considerable amount of mislaneous work, the general-surveys section repaired and removed tain Zone triangulation stations, made surveys and maps for other >artments of The Panama Canal, made locations for the radio staas being constructed for the Navy Department, took readings on ement hubs in the Gatun Dam, and performed the necessary in connection with the precise level bench marks and monuTrats for the tide-guage registers at Colon, Gatun, and Miraflores.

AIDS TO NAVIGATION.

The construction and placing of lights and beacons was continued ng the year and, with the exception of the light at the extremity the west breakwater and the construction of six which can not * placed until the work in connection with the slides in Culebra a is completed, all the aids to navigation were finished and turned to the superintendent of canal transportation, for maintenance operation, on June 16, 1914. The design for the west breakwater

light was for rather an elaborate structure founded on which had been built during the previous fiscal year. During year just ended it was taken to the site that it was to occupy in sinking it by admitting water through valves at the bottom o caisson, the valves could not be controlled from above, it took a and the caisson sunk in a position which prevented its use fo purpose intended until it could be straightened. After exper $8,602.22 in the attempt, it was abandoned as was also the de The total amount expended in completing the entire syste beacons, lights, and buoys to date aggregate $514,878.81, excl of general expenses.

For further details attention is invited to Appendix A.

DRY EXCAVATION.

The excavation for the canal prism in the dry, uncompleted at close of the previous fiscal year, embraced the Culebra Cut 1 Gamboa to Pedro Miguel Locks, the channel between Pedro Mi and Miraflores Locks, and the channel below Miraflores Locks to dike which excluded the waters of the Pacific. As noted in the vious annual report, a decision had been reached to admit wate the Cut by blowing up the dike at Gamboa on October 10, 1913, to complete the excavation that remained by dredges. With end in view, the excavation in Culebra Cut was carried on dur July with an average of 40.74 steam shovels, in August with an a age of 81.65 steam shovels, and in September with an average 11.63 steam shovels. These shovels worked not only in the Cut pro but on the upper reaches in the vicinity of Culebra and on the e side opposite Lirio. After the water had been admitted to the from 5 to 2 shovels worked on both the east and west bank in vicinity of Culebra so as to lighten the load. The work on the e bank was continued until April 1, 1914, and on the west bank int mittently until June 15, 1914. The last movement of any consid able amount occurred on the west side at Culebra just as the stea shovels were withdrawn. There were removed during the year total of 8,122,702 cubic yards of material, of which 2,205,847 cul yards were clasified as rock, at a division cost of $0.5661 per cub yard. Due to large credits for material recovered after the compl tion of the work, such as rails, ties, etc., amounting to about $260.00 the above figures do not represent the real cost of the work performe during the year which, eliminating these credits, was $0.6492 p cubic yard. Work continued on Cucaracha slide. Culebra slide Hagan's slide, Lirio slide, and the powder-house slide until steam shovel operations were suspended and there were removed from thes slides 2,685,902 cubic yards; in other words, 84 per cent of the mate rial removed from the Cut was due to slides. The total amount o

material removed in the dry from Culebra Cut, from the beginning American operations to June 15, 1914, aggregated 110,261,883 rabic yards at a division cost of $0.7066 per cubic yard; of this amount 25,206,100 cubic yards were removed because of slides, or 86 per cent. This was an increase of 4,940,100 cubic yards over that estimated in the annual report for 1912. Steam-shovel operaCons in the Cut proper were permanently suspended on September 1913, and at that time it was estimated that 600,000 cubic yards I material remained to be removed by dredges from the Cut section thin the original limits of the canal, exclusive of slides and the nes at the north and south ends of the Cut. Practically all of this material lay between Cucaracha slide and a point about midway Teen Culebra and Empire.

In

To prevent possible damage to the canal due to the velocity of rrent caused by the difference in head between Gatun Lake level and the bottom of the Cut, water was admitted through the 24-inch je extending into the lake under Gamboa Dike, these pipes rening from the old pumping plant located in the vicinity to take are of the drainage water to the north of the divide. This was e at 9 a. m. on October 1. Work on drilling the dike at Gamboa paratory to its demolition was begun in the latter part of August; holes were loaded and were fired on October 10 at 2 p. m. Tordance with an arrangement made two or three days beforehand, be blast was fired by President Woodrow Wilson, at Washington. This was effected by using the land telegraph to Galveston, Tex., and anecting it there with the Central & South American Cable Co.'s marine cable and land lines, which, by employing the company's asisthmian cable, furnished a connection to a local circuit in the nity of the dike. When the President depressed the lever, the Tent was relayed from point to point along the route and was entually transmitted to the local circuit, closing it and tripping a Fght attached to the handle of a switch. The weight threw the tch, setting off the blast. The result of the explosion was a clear ening 125 feet wide through which water from Gatun Lake flowed. sufficient volume to complete the filling of Culebra Cut from the to Cucaracha slide in about two hours' time. Prior to dynang the dike the water in the Cut was about 6 feet below the level the lake.

On October 10, after the blowing up of Gamboa Dike, an effort as made to dynamite a passage through the Cucaracha slide in er to flood the Cut between the dike and Pedro Miguel Locks. Rough steam shovels had been at work on the slide with a view to euring a passage through it, on the cessation of this work the moveSent continued and completely blocked the channel. The attempt open a passage by dynamite was not successful, and it was not

and to the i

The wrong operations to the north of God of Guarana wilde were ontioned during the pear and resulte the removal of 1784455 cubic yards of rock and earth at an STEZ division cost of W17 per cubic yard. This men was an by fome into the valley to the east of the catal

Material removed in the dry from Culebra Ci was wasted different localities, the bulk of it going to Balboa waste dam where 1,517,51%, cubic yards were deposited, and on the dumps al the relocation of the Panama Railroad, where 920.745 cubic yar were placed. The balance was used largely in fills at various poi south of the Cut.

South of Pedro Miguel Locks material amounting to 306.700 cul yards was excavated by the fifth division. Of this. 20.510 cul yards were from the channel south of Pedro Miguel Locks and 256.1 cubic yards from the prism south of the Miraflores Locks. The ave age division cost was $0.5134 per cubic yard. The material w used as a back fill to the locks and for sloping the Miraflores Dam.

On account of material recovered at the close of the work, cred was given aggregating about $79,000, so that the actual cost of di excavation during the year was $0.7709 per cubic yard. The tot amount excavated in the dry from Pedro Miguel to the sea sing the beginning of the work aggregated 4,819,969 cubic yards, at division cost of $0.6755.

The berm and chamber cranes on the west side of the locks wer taken down and stored; the four berm cranes, which formed a par of the concrete-handling plant during the construction of the Pacifi locks, will be used in connection with the coal-handling plant at Balboa.

Steam shovel work south of Pedro Miguel Locks was stopped in August and south of Miraflores Locks in September, and steps taken to remove all tracks that remained within the limits of the canal

hannel. The last remaining barrier at the Pacific end of the canal was dynamited at 9.30 o'clock August 31, 1913. This dike, composed of a trestle fill of rock and earth, prevented the water from the sea level from entering the steam-shovel cut, 5,000 feet long, 500 feet de, and 46 feet below mean tide, extending to Miraflores Locks. The Rio Grande diversion was turned into this pit on August 23, but the depth of water had only reached about 15 feet by August About 37,000 pounds of 45 per cent and 60 per cent dynamite were used, the charge being placed in 541 holes at an average depth of 30 feet. At the time of the explosion the water in the channel south of the barrier was nearly at low tide. The dynamite tore a pap in the dike about 100 feet wide, but as the bottom of the gap as still at some height above the existing tide level, no water passed hrough until high tide, at 1.35 p. m. At 3 o'clock, 1 hour and 25 nutes after the water first began to flow over, the level in the side channel was that of the outside channel, while the gap had been widened to 400 feet or more.

As noted in previous annual reports, there were two low places in 3 perimeter of Gatun Lake which were to be raised in order to roid all possibility of the waters of the lake escaping. One of se was in the vicinity of Gatun, and an embankment was built ross it by the forces of the Atlantic division. This was in a ravine the headwaters of Las Guachas Creek, where the natural elevaon was 85.7 feet above sea level. A fill about 350 feet long and ttaining approximately 4,117 cubic yards was made by means of zale-team scrapers, borrowing from adjacent hills, which raised the arface to elevation 105, with a crown width of 15 feet. Under date # November 28, 1913, a contract was made for building an earth the at Cano Saddle No. 4, along a ridge about 12 miles southwest Gatun, to raise the rim of Gatun Lake at that point to 105 feet bove sea level. The estimated amount of material involved was 50 cubic yards, and the contract price was 68 cents per cubic ard, embankment measure. The work was completed in May, 1914. The payments to contractor will aggregate $48,950.50. This saddle between the headwaters of the Siri River, a tributary of the Trinidad, and the Lagarto River, which flows into the Caribbean

The surface of the earth at the lowest point was 87.4 feet above level. The fill is approximately 900 feet long between the 105foot contours on knolls at the ends of the saddle. It is 15 feet at the op, with a slope of 1 on 3 on both sides.

DREDGING.

The dredging division continued in charge of Mr. W. G. Comber resident engineer, and was subdivided into two districts, the first tending from deep water in the Pacific to Gamboa, and the second from Gamboa to deep water in the Caribbean.