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March, 1913 GOLD HILL VIEWED FROM TOM LEVEL THE BOT. caracha, and it is only occasionally one meets with a man who remarks that a dipper dredge is simply a BACKWATER FROM GATUN LAKE IN CANAL PRISM steam shovel proposition blindfolded. It doesn't seem reasonable that the DRILLS AT WORK IN CANAL BASIN THE MARINE REVIEW dredges can handle the slides as well as steam shovels and locomotives. Moreover, the excavated material at present is used to reclaim swamps and bottom lands, to build the re-located roadbed of the Panama railroad and to establish a foundation for the new town of Balboa--all of which service is rendered easily by the dirt trains, but none of which could be done by the barges. Presumably the intention is to dump the barges in Gatun lake, as they could not be taken to the Pacific ocean without flooding the locks at Peter Miguel and Miraflores. Possibly there may be-a less num- ber of slides when the dynamite ex- plosions cease, but this is a mere speculation. Considering the liberal usé of dynamite at all hours and-in all portions of the cut, the compara- tive freedom from accidents is re- markable. There has, in fact, been but one serious accident. The workmen handle the stuff with the utmost un- concern, balancing boxes of it en their heads and stepping from rock to rock GATUN LAKE AS SEEN FROM THE SPILLWAY as indifferently as though they were carrying so much soap. It seems al- most providential that no visitors have been hurt on the locks or in the cut. They may go anywhere they please and the only warning they get of an impending explosion is the usual steam whistle, which to an abstracted on- "looker may mean nothing at all. Their safety lies in the workmen themselves, whose actions make eloquent their otherwise unintelligible jargon. On the locks there are numerous holes for the absent-minded to fall into, but no one has tumbled into them as yet. A andling Excavated Material The handling of the excavated mia- terial has reached a high point of efficiency. Four steam shovels will load a train of 20 cars in 20 minutes, -800' tons,' and the unloading plow will unload the whole train in five minutes or less. This device is simplicity it- self. The dirt cars are of the usual gondola type, built up, however, on O1 CULEBRA CUT, LOOKING NORTH one side only, and the plow, which has a spread the width of the car, is attached to the rear. of the. dirt FRENCH DREDGES WORKING IN PA- CIFIC SEA LEVEL SECTION train, being carried: on one of the gondola cars. A wire cable connects ' THE SLIDE AT EMPIRE