The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

5 36 effected in the dry, on rails, but it might also be effected on water. The excavation in the dry was not the only mode of excavatinge--it was uiso the worse, and move expensive and the pooren one. The defects which existed in temperate regions increased in 'in- credible proportions under the climato- logical conditions ot the Panama isth-. mus. With the excavation by floating dredges, transportation by barges and dumping in deep water, all the isth-. mus difficulties vanished as if they had 'been touched by a magician's hand. There was no more need of an enor- mous army of workmen, changing every minute some of the tracks, in order to follow the progress of the earthwork. There was no more need for the cease- less care to be taken with the move- able tracks, which had necessarily poor foundations and could not be disposed for supporting any heavy traffic. There was no more need for strug- gling against the sudden _ tropical floods, which brought down on the tracks the mud iori up from the slopes of the cut, submerged them, ruined their foundations or buried them. There was no more need of stopping series of steam shovels for quent runnings off the rails, which these unavoidable conditions of the soil and climate brougnt about constantly, blocking for whole days communica- tion between the points of loading and points of unloading. There was no more need to struggle against the land- slips which stopped the excavation work, and when they took place on the lines of communication paralyzed by repercussion both a considerable plant and a great number of hands., There was no more need to tax one's inge- nuity to enable the trains to circulate over the dumping places where the rain caused frequent landslips. There was no more need for hesitation be- tween this Scylla and the Charybdis, which was either to have heavy trucks' ' and powerful locomotives for excavat- ing huge masses of earth which de-. -manded the heavy jenalty of more fre- quent runnings off the rails, so difficult to keep in order, or to have lighter plant circulating more easily, but less powerful and carrying away insuffi- cient masses. There would be no more need of exposing to the alternative sun and rain thousands of workmen who were struggling against nature, and consequently of enduring the sor- rowful procession of fevers and pneu- monia which resulted from that in- human work, . With the excavation on water by dredges, transportation on water by barges, and dumping into deep water , tion. the fre- . signers. TAE MarRINeE REVIEW by opening traps at the bottom of the barges, all these difficulties van- ished. The carriage power of water was unlimited, and the most powerful organs for excavation might be em- ployed without any drawback. As a matter of fact, dredges with buckets of one cubic yard (764 liters) were at present in use. As there were fifteen passing per minute they were capable of bringing up from the bottom more 'than 22,000 cubic yards in a day of 24 hours. Making a very liberal al- lowance for stoppages and other causes of diminution of work, the most pessi- mistic of dredgers would not 'figure . fon one of these instruments on an effective yielding cf less than 7,000 cubic yards measured in the excava- 'And dredges of that capacity were not the most powerful ones. There were some in Great Britain which had buckets of about. 2 cubic yards, that was, which could give a useful and practical yield of 14,000 cu- bic yards per day, in the most unfavor- able cincumstanzes. With the trans- port by water a barge could easily carry 2,000 tons of material, that was about 1,000 cubic yards of the heaviest ground' measured in the excavation, and even more. 'he number of hands on board a dredge doing this enormous work would be fifteen men if it was a steam dredge, and ten men if it were worked by electricity. On board: a barge there would be two or three. The dumping was automatic, and only required the action of gravity. That admirable and complete solution of all the isthmian difficulties was reflected naturally in the cust price. "OLD IRONSIDES." It develops that the old naval 'frigate Constitution, which is now being re- stored to her original form at the Bos- ton navy yard, will probably not be sent to the Jamestown Exposition if the in- fluence of various patriotic societies of Massachusetts can prevent, owing, it is said, to the belief that if she once leaves Boston it will be almost impossible to get her back. The historic vessel looks today almost as she must have when she was launched in Boston in 1797, this having been made possible by the finding of the model carved by one of her de- Duplicates of her battery are now being cast at the Boston navy yard but they are duplicates only in appear- ance, not being fitted for service. One' relic of great historic interest has been discovered in the ship's bell taken by the Constitution from the British frigate Guerriere, which was blown up by. the Constitution Aug. 20, 1812. Many other relics have come to light since the act of congress was passed appropriating $100,000 to the work of restoring the veteran fighter. OFFICERS STRIKE. The American Association of Masters, Mates and Pilots, which recently ordered a strike for May 1, has succeeded in mak- ing agreements with the majority of the -coastwise lines, although not succeeding in all cases in procuring the demands first set forth. The lines which are yet to be settled with include the Atlantic Coast Lumber Co., Guffey Oil Co., Stand- ard Oil Co. American-Hawaiian. and Southern Pacific lines. Including those lines which constitute the Consolidated Steamship lines, the following have con- clided agreements with the officers: Clyde, Mallory, 'Metropolitan, Eastern Steamship, Hudson Navigation, Citizens', Ward, Savannah, Morgan, Bull, Bruns- wick, Panama, Red D, and Luckenbach Towing & Transportation Co. LONGSHOREMEN STRIKE. : Longshoremen. to the number of 10,000 are on strike at the New York docks for an increase in wages. The companies affected include the Red Star, White Star, American, Holland-American, Phoenix, Rotterdam, Scandinavian- American, North German Lloyd, Bremen, . Ward, Mallory, 'New York & .Porto Rico, and Munson lines, and a number of freight handling firms, including the Bush Co.,. Charles N. Tiffany, and the New York Dock Co., these latter having been affected through a strike of their freight handlers who have struck in conjunction with the longshoremen. The Cunard line is also threatened with a strike and many expedients are being resorted to in order to load and unload vessels, many . crews and clerks helping out in the emergency. Later advices seem.to in- dicate the settlement of differences in- sofar as the coastwise and West India lines are concerned. The United States lighthouse tender Madrone has just landed at the Tarel- lones island's light station and fog sig- nal a complete oil-burning outfit to be used in operating the fog signal machin- ery. The United States lighthouse board came to the conclusion some time ago that a supply of steam could be main- tained with greater certainty by using liquid fuel than with coal. The Tarel- lone fog signal consumes about 100 tons of coal a year. It is estimated that by substituting crude oil for coal, a consid- erable saving may be effected.