Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . sing tideof Gatun Lake, and such por-tions of it as escape sub-mergence by the water will beoverwhelmed by the equallyirresistible jungle. Charles T. Bidwell, an Eng-lish traveler who crossed theIsthmus in 1853 by way of theGorgona route, says of thepleasures of a sojourn in thattown, The place contained afew stores and more drinkingsaloons, most of which werekept by the enterprising Yan-kee. The Gorgona road toPanama was just then open, it being passable only inthe dry season, and it was estimated that 2,000 per-sons had passed through this place
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . sing tideof Gatun Lake, and such por-tions of it as escape sub-mergence by the water will beoverwhelmed by the equallyirresistible jungle. Charles T. Bidwell, an Eng-lish traveler who crossed theIsthmus in 1853 by way of theGorgona route, says of thepleasures of a sojourn in thattown, The place contained afew stores and more drinkingsaloons, most of which werekept by the enterprising Yan-kee. The Gorgona road toPanama was just then open, it being passable only inthe dry season, and it was estimated that 2,000 per-sons had passed through this place on their way to orfrom California. * * * We decided to take theGorgona road and arranged to have saddle mulesready in the morning to convey us to Panama for$20 each and to pay i63^ cents a pound additionalfor the conveyance of our luggage. (The distancenow by rail, which closely follows the old trail is16 miles, the fare 80 cents.) We then went toinspect a free ball which had been got up withall available splendor in honor of some feast, and. A FERRY ON THE UPPER CHAGRES ANIMAL LIFE ON THE CHAGRES RIVER 197 here we had a rare opportunity of seeing assembledmany shades of color in the human face divine; agorgeous display of native jewelry and not the mosthappy mixture of bright colors in the toilettes ofthose who claimed to be the fair sex. Dancinghowever, and drinking too, seemed to be kept upwith no lack of spirit and energy to the inharmo-nious combination of a fiddle and a drum; and thoseof the assembly whose tastes led them to quieterpursuits had the opportunity of losing at adjoininggaming tables the dollars they had so easily andquickly extracted from the travelers who had hadoccasion to avail them-selves of their tables too werekept by the enterpris-ing Yankee. Havingseen all this, andsmoked out our cigars,we sought our beds,when we found foreach a shelf or bunk ina room which our hostboasted had at a pushcontained twenty-fiveor thirty people. * * *On awa
Size: 2067px × 1209px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorabbotwil, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
