triumph, celebrates the completion of the Panama Canal. (See p. 47.)
Resting on a pedestal in the center of the pool, and supported by a
circle of figures representing the dance of the oceans, is the Earth,
surmounted by a figure of Energy, the force that dug the canal. Fame and
Victory blow their bugles from his shoulders. When all the jets are
playing, Energy, horsed, rides through the waters on either hand.

The band around the Earth, decorated with sea horses and fanciful
aquatic figures, represents the seaway now completed around the globe.
On one side a bull-man, a rather weak-chinned minotaur, stands for the
strength of Western civilization; on the other, a cat-woman represents
the civilization of the Eastern hemisphere. Surrounding the central
figure in the pool are the four Oceans,--the Atlantic with corraled
tresses and sea horses in her hand, riding a helmeted fish; the Northern
Ocean as a Triton mounted on a rearing walrus; the Southern Ocean as a
negro backing a sea elephant and playing with an octopus; and the
Pacific as a female on a creature that might be a sea lion, but is not.
Dolphins backed by nymphs of the sea serve a double purpose as
decoration and as spouts for the waters.

The central figure of this fountain has been severely criticized, and
with reason. The design is a beautiful one, but unfortunately not well
adapted to reproduction on so large a scale. Symbolism is here carried
to an extreme that spoils the simplicity which alone makes a really
great work imposing. Calder had a fine idea of a figure of joyous
triumph to stand as the opening symbol of the festival side of the
Exposition. He deserves credit for the real beauty of his design. It is
a pity that a thing so charming as a model should not have worked out
well in heroic proportions.