feet from the same datum
in the Pacific, was to be overcome and the final currents reduced by a
proper sloping of the bottom of the Pacific portion of the Canal. No
provisions were made for the control of the Chagres River.

In the early eighties after a study of the flow due to the tidal
differences, a tidal lock near the Pacific was provided. Various
schemes were also proposed for the control of the Chagres, the most
prominent being the construction of a dam at Gamboa. The dam as
proposed afterward proved to be impracticable, and this problem
remained, for the time being, unsolved. The tunnel through the divide
was also abandoned in favor of an open cut.

Work was prosecuted on the sea-level canal until 1887, when a change to
the lock type was made, in order to secure the use of the Canal for
navigation as soon as possible. It was agreed at that time that the
change in plan did not contemplate abandonment of the sea-level Canal,
which was ultimately to be secured, but merely its postponement for the
time being. In this new plan the summit level was placed above the
flood line of the Chagres River, to be supplied with water from that
stream by pumps. Work was pushed forward until 1889, when the company
went into bankruptcy; and on February 4th that year a liquidator was
appointed to take charge of its affairs. Work was suspended on May 15,
1889. The new Panama Canal Company was organized in October, 1894, when
work was again resumed, on the plan recommended by a commission of
engineers.

This plan contemplated a sea-level canal from Limon Bay to Bohio, where
a dam across the valley created a lake extending to Bas Obispo, the
difference in level being overcome by two locks; the summit level
extended from Bas Obispo to Paraiso, reached by two more locks, and was
supplied with water by a feeder from an artificial reservoir created by
a dam at Alhajuela, in the upper Chagres Valley. Four locks were
located on the Pacific side, the two middle ones at Pedro Miguel
combined in a flight.

A second or alternative plan was proposed at the same time, by which
the summit level was to be a lake formed by the Bohio dam, fed directly
by the Chagres. Work was continued on this plan until the rights and
property of the new company were purchased by the United States.

The United States, not unmindful of the advantages of an isthmian
canal, had from time to time made investigations and surveys of the
various routes. With a view t