Panuco River

“ The bank of the river is very bold, and the water of sufficient depth to allow vessels to anchor close to the shore; and the navigation inland is uninterrupted for more than a hundred miles. The town is laid out in regular squares. The site is a sort of low flat shelf of land, forming the terminus of a rocky peninsula, above and back of which there is a cluster of lakes or ponds, having an outlet into the Panuco. These ponds, like those in the vicinity of Vera Cruz, are fruitful of yellow fever, which annually ravages this devoted coast. ”

“ No hay is cured in this land, nor do the natives feed grain even to their work animals. The horses and mules are grass-fed and leaf-browsed, and grass and leaves are green the year around. Rain falls every month in the year, the "rainy season" merely connoting the period of excessive rain. The Pánuco River was alive with traffic. The first returning adventurers were already moving oil. River steamers and ocean tugs moved up and down with long tows of tank barges, and here and there, against the banks, barges were loading oil from the pipe lines of near-by wells. ”

“ But these lakes, after the manner of other bodies of water, generally, in the high elevations of the American Cordilleras—Titicaca, in Peru, to wit—are gradually perishing by evaporation, their waters diminishing century by century. The Valley of Mexico, however, of recent years has received an artificial hydrographic outlet in the famous drainage canal and tunnel, which conducts the overflow into a tributary of the Panuco river, and so to the Gulf of Mexico. ”

“ Bernal Diaz says, Hist. Verdad., 10, ‘Y esto es ya en la Provincia de Panuco: é yendo por nuestra nauegaciõ llegamos á vn rio grande, que le pusimos por nõbre Rio de Canoas.’ The nomenclature of this stream is quite regular in the several times and places. Cortés gives Rio Panuco loaton; Colon, R: panuco; Ribero and Vaz Dourado, panuco; Orontius, R. panico; Hood, Panuço; Baptista Agnese, panucho, and rio panucho; no. vi. Munich Atlas the same; Ptolemy, 1530, in Munster, Panuco; Mercator, river and town Panuco, and next town south Chila. And so on with Hondius, Ogilby, Dampier, and the rest. ”

“ The banks of the river are described as being very beautiful, which we can easily believe from what we have already seen; but for its beauties after passing Tampico; its wooded shores dotted with white ranches, its large cattle-farms, and its picturesque, old Indian town of Panuco, we must trust to hearsay. The country in the vicinity is described as being a wilderness of rare trees, matted together with graceful and flowering creepers, the wild haunts of birds of bright and beautiful plumage ”

“ We notice, on the coast, the Gulf of Tampico, into which pours the river Panuco. From an antiquarian point of view, this is a most interesting locality. It was here that a feeble remnant of De Soto’s disastrous expedition found a refuge in 1543. And it was here that, at a far earlier period, according to the dim, uncertain light of tradition, the ancestors of some of the civilized nations of Mexico made their first appearance; of this, more hereafter. Certain it is that, commencing at this river, we find ourselves in a land of ruins. ”

“ They landed, but the people of Florida killed so many of them that they did not dare to settle there. They then sailed along the coast and came to the river of Panuco, five hundred [277] leagues from the peninsula of Florida, measured on a course along the coast. The natives attacked them at every place. Many of them were killed at Chila [near the mouth of the river Panuco] , where the natives flayed and eat those who fell into their hands, and hung up the skins in their temples to commemorate their valor. ”

“ In the middle of the dam the level of the lake is controlled by a channel called the "spillway," with walls and floor of concrete, by which the surplus waters will be sluiced off into the old bed of the Chagres River and so passed on to the sea. The entrance to this channel is closed with falling gates or doors. This safety-valve will no doubt be capable of dealing with the biggest and quickest rise of the lake-level that is ever likely to take place. It can pass off 137,000 cubic feet of water a second, the water issuing at a speed of 35 feet a second. ”

“ THESE huge arches, only made as arches to save concrete and to break the waves of the lake, are mightier than any Roman aqueduct, and more pictorial, yet soon they will be hidden almost to the top by the waters of the lake. Electric locomotives will run out to the farthest point, and from it, tow the ships into the lock. Beyond is Gatun Lake, and to the right the lines of the French Canal and Chagres River stretch to the horizon. Even while I was on the Isthmus the river and canal disappeared forever before the waters of the rapidly rising flood. ”

“ The upper source of the Panuco is in the neighborhood of the city of San Luis Potosi, the capital of the state of that name. Near half a league north north-east of this city, in the valley de la Pila, rises a spring which is protected by a basin of fine masonry, and conveyed by an aqueduct to town. Several other streams, coming from the south-west, unite with this source and form the Panuco. West of the first of these streams, swells up the mountainous ridge which divides the waters of Mexico between the Pacific and the Atlantic. ”

“ With the hills bordering the valley and the dam across it, the engineers have been able to inclose a gigantic reservoir which has a superficial surface of 164 square miles. It is irregular in shape and might remind one of a [40] pressed chrysanthemum, the flower representing the lake and the stem Culebra Cut. The surface of the water in this lake is normally 85 feet higher than the surface of the water seaward from Gatun and Miraflores. The lake is entirely fresh water supplied by the Chagres River. The accompanying figure shows the profile of the canal. ”

“ It turned out that the ancient village of Cruces was a mere two-mile stroll from the canal, a thatch-roofed native town of some thirty dwellings on the rocky shore of an inner curve of the Chagres, where travelers from Balboa to the last "Forty-niner" disembarked from their thirty-six mile ride up the river and struck on along the ten-mile road through the jungle to Panama—the famous Cruces trail. Except for its associations the village was without interest—except some personal Greek interest. Sour looks were chiefly my portion, for the villagers have never taken kindly to Americans. ”

“ At Nicaragua the distance is greater, being about 156 m. in a straight line, but more than one third is covered by Lake Nicaragua, a sheet of fresh water with an area of about 3000 sq. m. and a maximum depth of over 200 ft., the surface being about 105 ft. above sea-level. Lake Nicaragua is connected with the Atlantic by a navigable river, the San Juan, and is separated from the Pacific by the continental divide, which is about 160 ft. above sea-level. At Nicaragua only a canal with locks is feasible, but at Panama a sea-level canal is a physical possibility. ”

“ Pongo, the name given to River Narrows by the natives, is a corruption of the word Puncu, which, in the Quichua language, signifies a door or gate. In the Pongo de Rentema huge masses of rock consisting of coarse-grained sandstone (conglomerate) , rise up like towers and form a rocky dam across the stream. I measured a base line on the flat sandy shore, and found that the Amazon River, which, further eastwards, spreads into such mighty width, is, at Tomependa, scarcely 1400 feet broad. ”

“ How the Christians came to Panico, and of their reception by the inhabitants.
From the time the Christians left the River Grande, to come by sea from Florida to the River of Panico, were fifty-two days. On the tenth day of September, of the year 1543, they entered the Panico, going up with the brigantines. In the many windings taken by the stream, the light wind was often unfavorable, and the vessels in many places made slow headway, having to be towed with much labor against a strong current ”

“ That portion runs through the wilderness a mile or more back from the canal, through jungled hills so dense with vegetation one could only make one's way through it with the ubiquitous machete of the native jungle-dweller, except where tiny trails appear that lead to squatters' thatched huts thrown together of tin, dynamite and dry-goods boxes and jungle reeds in little scattered patches of clearing. Some of these hills have been cut half away for the new line—great generous "cuts," for to the giant 90-ton steam-shovels a few hundred cubic yards of earth more or less is of slight importance. ”

“ Away up there, at the far end of the river gully, where the Lake of Gatun'll be, there's a sight more dirt than this being taken from the isthmus. Some of that's being dumped at the dam just away over our heads; some of it's being emptied outside Panama, filling up a swamp through which the canal will run. Reckon there won't be swamps when we're done. There'll be good hard ground, and houses'll be built on a spot where there's fever nowadays. We're using dirt at this end in the same way; but you was asking about the dumping?"
Jim nodded, and looked at the spoil train being hauled away. ”

“ How the Christians arrived at the river Panico.
Wheresoever the people dug along the shore they found fresh water. The jars being filled, and the procession concluded, they embarked; and, going ever in sight of land, they navigated for six days. Juan de Añasco said it would be well to stand directly out to sea; for that he had seen the card, and remembered that, from Rio de Palmas onward, the coast ran south, and up to that time they had gone westwardly. ”

“ The pacuna is very similar to the sumpitan, used by the inhabitants of Borneo and other people in the Eastern Archipelago, though the latter are not acquainted with the wourali poison.
I must hurry on, I find, with my adventures. For several days we proceeded down the Ucayali, till we arrived at a point where a small river, called the Shaunga, falls into it. The stream was broad and tranquil, and vast trees grew down to the water’s edge; while in the far distance, to the south and east, rose ranges of lofty mountains, reminding us of the distant Andes in miniature. ”

“ The town of Panuco may contain about seventy families; the most of their houses are of lime and stone, and some made of timber, and all of them are thatched. It is a poor country, and there is neither gold nor silver in it. The inhabitants live there in great abundance of victuals and servants. The richest have not above five hundred crowns rent a year, and that is in cotton cloths, hens, and maize, which the Indians their servants do give them for tribute. There arrived there of those that came out of Florida, three hundred and eleven Christians. ”

“ Water drawn out for domestic purposes is taken from the top wherever possible. The water has a somewhat unpleasant taste to people newly arrived upon the Isthmus, and in some cases serves to disturb the digestive tract, but to the people who become accustomed to it the unpleasant flavor, due to the presence of decayed vegetation, is forgotten, and the workers on the Canal Zone frequently declare they miss the Panama water when they go back to the States. ”

“ My favourite excursion was to descend the Panuco, till we made the opening of the small broken channel which winds between oyster beds and green verdant banks, and forms the communication with the southern lagoon, upon whose shore the old settlement is situated. At such times the morning breeze would generally fill your sail, and bring you without much labour under the little thatched landing place, which, once the scene of so much bustle, is now nearly deserted. ”

“ In the small extent of 330 leagues of area there are 46 rivers, besides a countless number of rivulets and branches of navigable water.
The rivers of the north coast are stocked with delicious fish, some of them large enough to weigh two quintals.
From the river of Arecibo to that of Manati, a distance of 5 leagues, a fresh-water lagoon, perfectly navigable for small vessels through the whole of its extent, runs parallel to the sea at about a mile from the shore.
In the fertile valley of Anasco, on the western coast, there is a canal formed by nature, deep and navigable. ”

“ The Orinoco, the Rio Negro, and almost all the confluents of the Amazon and the Maranon, have falls or rapids, either because they cross the mountains where they take rise, or because they meet other mountains in their course. If the Amazon, from the pongo of Manseriche (or, to speak with more precision, from the pongo of Tayuchuc) as far as its mouth, a space of more than seven hundred and fifty leagues, exhibit no tumultuous movement of the waters, the river owes this advantage to the uniform direction of its course. ”

“ The amount of material handled in the construction of the Panama Canal was about 260,000,000 cubic yards. The completion of Culebra Cut was delayed two years by slides of earth and stone which in the total reached 32,000,000 cubic yards. There is a great deal more in the Panama Canal than a mere forty-mile waterway, wide and deep enough for the passage of the largest ocean-going vessels. Breakwaters, fortifications, Gatun Lake — the largest artificial lake in the world — where the ships of the world might congregate and ride in safety; three sets of locks, also the largest in the world ”

“ As one travels along the Pacific end of the canal he is reminded of the words of Isaiah:
"Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain."
Hundreds of acres of low, marshy land have been filled up, either with mud from the suction dredges and the hydraulic excavators, or with spoil from Culebra Cut. Much of this made land will be valuable for tropical agriculture, while other parts will never serve any purpose other than to keep down the marshes. ”