Panama and the canal . Obstacles bottom coukl be found beneath the soft ofL tons of rock were clumped upon it and in a fewhours sank out of sight. This swamp was obstacle enoughto force less determined men to cjuit the work. The next obstacle Ayas the Chagres riyer. The route ofthe line crossed it at seyeral points and there the terrificfloods made railroad building next to imptjssible. dhewater often rose ten feet or more aboye the tracks andswept away the results of months of labor. Another obstacle was the difficulty of securing good lal)or-ers. The Panama natiAX* has a way of work
Panama and the canal . Obstacles bottom coukl be found beneath the soft ofL tons of rock were clumped upon it and in a fewhours sank out of sight. This swamp was obstacle enoughto force less determined men to cjuit the work. The next obstacle Ayas the Chagres riyer. The route ofthe line crossed it at seyeral points and there the terrificfloods made railroad building next to imptjssible. dhewater often rose ten feet or more aboye the tracks andswept away the results of months of labor. Another obstacle was the difficulty of securing good lal)or-ers. The Panama natiAX* has a way of working one dayand then of loafing for the next weel^. AYhen he works, hedoes not accomplish much. So laborers had to be imported 104 CHINESE LABORERS from abroad. The Company, as an experiment, broughtover a shipload of eight hundred Chinamen. They immedi-ately began to fall sick. In less than two months aftertheir arrival there was hardly one of the original numberfit to wield a pick or shovel. They gave themselves up to. Floods on Panama Railroad—1906. despair and sought death by whatever means came nearestto hand. Some sat on the shore and awaited the rising tide,nor did they stir until the sea swallowed them. Somehanged or strangled themselves by their cues. The rem-nant, fewer than two hundred, sick and useless, were shippedto Jamaica. BATTLE WITH DISEASE 105 Irisli laborers were tried with no better results. Finallya gang of several thousand negroes from Jamaica, and afew whites from ^•arious sources fmished the work. We may already suspect the greatest enemy with whiclithe railroad had to light, ^ifore serious tlian all other 0I3-stacles to any great work in Panama is the Disease tropical climate with its tropical diseases. Notonly does the steaming hot weather suck the strength out ofmen who are accustomed to cooler lands, but it lea^?es themtoo weak to throw off the diseases that lurk in tlie filtli ofthe cities and the deadly air of the swamps. Consumption,typhoid, m
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