Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/440

436 and the dangers increase at a more rapid rate than proportional to the lift, and the dangers are magnified by the fact that the locks are to be in flights. He furthermore reaches the conclusion that the traffic capacity of the lock canal should be estimated at about 35,000,000 tons per annum instead of at 80,000,000 tons, the figure assumed by the minority.

An extended and comprehensive argument for a sea-level project was presented to the senate committee by General Davis, who, as a member of the commission of 1904, and resident on the isthmus as governor of the Canal Zone for a year, and thereupon as chairman of the board of consulting engineers, had had unusual opportunity for arriving at a mature conclusion. All that General Davis said in relation to the type of the canal before the committee should be read by those who desire to follow this matter farther. Short extracts, and a condensed statement embodying the substance of his presentation, can alone be here attempted.

General Davis compares the Soo Canal, with its few thousand feet of channel approaches, to the great tidal harbor basins of Europe. It is more nearly analogous to these than to a great interoceanic canal on which the aggregate length of locks alone exceeds by nearly a mile the entire length of the Soo Canal. Because Lake Huron is twenty odd feet higher than Lake Erie, it was useless to hope for a channel clear of all obstructions, and American and Canadian engineers have provided the best solution possible.

The better approach to the straight line requirement by the sea-level canal is pointed out. The lock canal project shows 21 per centum more winding and tortuous navigation than the sea-level project. General Davis estimates the expense of maintenance and operation of a sea-level canal at $1,550,000 per annum, and the lock type of canal, at