OCR Text |
Show r PANAMA HAS A FUTURE. The region of the Panama canal U said to be inviting to both farmet j and miner. Recently the Times ol c London printed a special edition o large size on the canal and the re ; sources of Tanama, in which it was stated that the Interior of Panama Is rich, the soil Is fertile along the ri ers, the hillsides adapted to grazing and fruit raising, and the forests rich in hard woods. Reference Is made to the many rivers that traverse the country, and the bays that deepl) In dent the coasts. A glance at the map shows the magnificent situation of the isthmus as regards ocean travel, trav-el, for no part of th country is more than fifty miles from the sea. It is proposed to build narrow-gauge rail ways Irom the various ports to the; interior towns nnd fields, to create great reservoirs to generate electrlci ty for poer and for Irrigation daring thp dry smson. to build wharves and Improve harbors. Good highway-and highway-and trails will also be constructed It will be possible thus to place the remotest re-motest hamlets of the provinces with- in two hours' communication with M tidewater and within two days ot Panama City. Of the mining possibilities, it is said that every stream in Panama shows colorings of gold, yet few of them are worth working by the ordinary ordi-nary panning method, the long rainy season Interfering seriously with this class of operation. In every province of the republic there are sections where gold was mined with profit by the Spaniards, but they used slave labor, and the methods by which they worked the digglnps were not profit able when slavery was abolished. Ya rious prospecting companies have sent engineers into different sections ol the country, and In almost every case the report was to the effect that the ore was good, in some instances ex cellent, but the cost of development, including inland transportation ot machinery, was too great to warrant operations at the present time. The opening up of an extensive nun ing territory in Panama would do more to deelop that country than any one other thing, as American miners soon would be there in force and form the nucleus of great industrial forces that would lead to the opening up of the agricultural resources. |