Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/328

PANAMA. is succeeded farther west by the drainage of the Chagres Basin, whose waters are carried to the Caribbean, though the basin extends nearly to the Pacitic. From the Chagres to the Costa Kican border, the drainage consists of less complicated streams rising nearer the central or axial line and Howing into either ocean. Thus the drainage of the eastern or larger part of the Isthmus is complex and reaches the sea by concentrating into three principal channels, while to the west- ward it is simple.

Among the hills covering the Isthmus are a number of natural passes which afford the easiest routes between the two seas. These passes are: Culebra (287 feet); Atrato-Sucubti (.583 feet); Atrato-Xapipi (778); Caledonia (1003); San Bias (1142); and Atrato-JIorte (1143).

The mean annual temperature, 78° to 80° F., is somewhat higher on the Atlantic coast, owing to the warmer waters of the Caribbean. The extreme annual range of temperature rarely ex- ceeds 30% the limits being 65° and 115° or 100°. The entire region is under the influence of the northeast trades between December and April, and in the remainder of the year these air currents are replaced by southeasterly winds. The rainfall is verj' heavy, and the climate is very unhealthful. The whole region is covered with a jungle of grasses, sedges, wild plantains, and trees char- acteristic of the lower lands of the Caribbean. Owing to less copious rainfall, vegetation is less exuberant on the Pacific than on the Atlantic side. The oceanic fauna on the Caribbean side differs greatly from that on the Pacific side, and even the land animals differ in the same way, to some extent.

The general level of the Isthmus has been enor- mously lowered by long continued erosion. The surface is rapidly approaching base level. An- tiquity is stamped upon every form. The igneous rocks are now exposed by erosion. But the vol- canic fires which still persist eastward in the Andes and westward in Central America have long ceased to exist in the Isthmus. There is no evidence that the oceans have ever communi- cated across the Isthmian regions since Tertiary times. If the Isthmus could be lowered 300 feet at present the waters of the two oceans would commingle through the low Culebra Pass.

Most of the inhabitants are a mixed people of Spanish. Indian, and negro origin. Some of the aborigines, however, as the Guavmi and Chocos, have preserved their physical type, customs, and speech. The Isthmus is thinly peopled and has no very important towns except the ports of Panama and Colon, the termini of the Panama Railroad and of the proposed Panama Canal. Politically the Isthmus proper forms the Panama department of the Republic of Colombia. In other respects, however, it has small relations with the Republic. Its ports are not used in the com- merce of the rest of Colombia ; there is very little trade between the Isthmus and the other depart- ments, and its railroad is merely a means of transport for the commerce (duty free) of other nations. The most complete treatment of the geographic and geologic aspects of the Isthmus is contained in Hill, "The Geological History of the Isthmus of Panama and Portions of Costa Rica," BuUetin of Museum of Comparative ZoUlogrj at Harvard Uyiiversity. vol. xxviii., No. .t (Cam- bridge, 1903) ; and of the Isthmus in all its fea- tures in Reclus, Tin- Earth and Its Jnhabitanti, Xorth America, vol. ii. (New York, 1893).

PANAMA CANAL. The projected ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The first project for the construction of such a canal to result in the actual beginning of the work grew out of a concession granted by the Government of Colom- bia to Lieut. Lucien X. B. Wyse and others in Ala}', 1878, giving to them the exclusive privi- lege, for 99 years, of constructing and operating a canal across the territory of the Kepublic between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. An international congress of 13.5 delegates, mostly engineers, 11 being from the Cnited States, was held at Paris in May, 1879, under the auspices of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had been induced to assume the leadership in the undertaking, and after a session of two weeks decided that the route for the canal should be across the Isthmus of Panama, between the cities of C'olOn and Panama, and that the canal should be a sea- level one and without locks. For the purpose of construction the Panama Canal Company, odi- cially known as the 'Compagnie Universelle du Canal Inter-oceanique de Panama,' was organized under the laws of France with Lesseps as president. It purchased the Wj'se concessiim for 10,000,000 francs, and at once entered upon the task of surveying the route and doing other pre- liminary work. The plan adopted provided for a sea-level canal 29.5 feet in depth, with a bottom width of 72 feet, involving an excavation of 157,000.000 cubic yards of earth and rock. The estimated cost of construction, as calculated by Lesseps, was $127,000,000, and the time required was estimated at eight years, both of which estimates were considerably under those made by the International Congress. Work was begun in 1881, but in a short lime it became evident that the undertaking involved ditliculties which had not been foreseen, and that the estimates were absurdly low. In order to obtain additional funds and to retain the confidence of the French public, bribery on an almost unprecedented scale was resorted to, prominent newspapers were sub- sidized, and a number of members of the French Chamber of Deputies were corrupted. In 1892 many of the transactions of the company or its agents became known to the public, and the dis- closures, implicating a number of the most prom- inent men in France, gave rise to perhaps the greatest financial scandal in French history. The company was declared to be bankrupt, and it was found, on examination, that up to this time- 1.300,000,000 francs had been expended: that the assets of the company amounted to only 7l>0,000,- 000 francs, and that only a small part of the work had been done. The compaiy was dissolved by the French courts and a receiver was ap- pointed to take charge of its affairs. The receiver was authorized to cede to any new company all or a part of the assets and to borrow money and make contracts with a view to completing the work of construction. He asked for and received from the Government of Colombia three sue- ces,sive extensions of time within which the canal was to be completed and put into o|H'ration. The last extension gave the promoters imtil 1910 to complete the work. The receiver finally suc- ceeded in October. 1804. in organizing the new Panama Companv, with a capital stock of (!50,000 shares of 100 francs each (about .$13,000,000),