out, even this splendid double-tracked railroad goes the way of
the rest, for on February fifteenth, a bare few days away, it was
to be abandoned and where we were now racing northwestward through
brilliant sunshine and Atlantic breezes would soon be the bottom
of a lake over which great ocean steamers will glide, while far
below will be tall palm-trees and the spreading mangoes, the
banana, king of weeds, gigantic ferns and--well, who shall say
what will become of the brilliant parrots, the monkeys and the
jaguars?

For nearly an hour we had not a glimpse of the canal, lost in the
jungle to the right. Then suddenly we burst out upon the growing
lake, now all but licking at the rails beneath us, the Zone city
of Gatun climbing up a hillside on its edge and scattering over
several more. To the left I caught my first sight of the world-
famous locks and dam, and at 3:30 we descended at the stone
station, first mile-post of permanency, for being out of reach of
the coming flood it is built to stay and shows what Canal Zone
stations will be in the years to come. There remained for me but
seven miles of the Isthmus still unseen.

On the cement platform was a great foregathering of the census
clans from all districts, whence we climbed to the broad porch of
the administration building above. There before me, for the first
time in--well, many months, spread the Atlantic, the Caribbean
perhaps I should say, seeming very near, so near I almost fancied
I could have thrown a stone to where it began and stretched away
up to the bluish horizon, while the entrance to the canal where
soon great ships will enter poked its way inland to the locks
beside us. Across the tree-tops of the flat jungle, also seeming