Pam′pas, properly the large, treeless plains of the Argentine Republic in South America. They rise in terraces from the coast to the foot of the Cordilleras, and extend about 2,000 miles long by 500 miles broad. The northeastern portion is very fertile and the pampas are used almost exclusively for grazing purposes, but the rest is barren and dry, abounding in strips of desert, the soil being of sandy clay. The level districts of Peru, 180,000 square miles in extent and covered by trees, are also called pampas.
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Pam′pas Grass, covering the pampas of the Argentine, is very hardy, beautiful in appearance and often used for ornament. The leaves are from six to eight feet long, and the flowering stems, with large spikes of silvery-white flowers, are from ten to 14 feet in height. The plant is now cultivated in California for the flower plumes, which are used in decorations by florists.
Pan, according to the Greek story, is considered the god of pastures, forests and flocks and is represented as having horns, a goat's beard, a crooked nose, pointed ears, a tail and goat's feet. The worship of Pan began in Arcadia, and in time extended all over Greece, reaching Athens last. He was worshiped by offerings of cows, goats, lambs, milk, honey and wine. He was also supposed to have been very fond of music, being credited as the inventor of the syrinx or pandean pipes. The Romans have identified him as their god Faunus. The story of his death, coincident with the birth of Christ, is finely treated by Milton, Rabelais, Schiller and Mrs. Browning.
Panama (păn′ȧ-mä′). A small republic comprising the narrowest part of Central America, between Costa Rica and Colombia. It formerly belonged to Colombia, but seceded in November, 1903. It is 35 miles wide, and has an area of 31,571 square miles. The population is 400,000. The isthmus is traversed by a range of mountains running between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and many streams, some of considerable size, notably the Tuira (160 miles), flow into both oceans. The trading ports are Aspinwall (or Colon) and Panama, and the exports are hides, tallow, indigo, caoutchouc, coffee, vanilla, gold-dust and tortoise shell. A railway crosses the isthmus from Colon to Pamama. The capital is Panama (population 35,500).
Panama Canal. The building of the Panama Canal may be said to be one of the greatest “military victories,” as it is the greatest engineering achievement in history.
Remarkable Triumph of Sanitary Methods and Engineering Skill. Two brilliant engineers, Wallace and Stevens, found themselves so hampered under civil administration that they resigned. It was only when the enterprise was finally placed under control of Colonel G. W. Goethals, of the United States Army, as Chief Engineer and Chairman of the Isthmian Commission, that the work moved forward with extraordinary rapidity. It involved a war against unprecedented natural difficulties, including very unhealthful conditions, and to carry on the “campaign” men and supplies had to be transported 2,000 miles. The average number of men employed was 40,000, nearly half the number in our standing army, and the total cost was approximately $375,000,000 (See Goethals (gō′thalz) and Gorgas).
The two greatest enemies to be overcome were disease—malaria and yellow fever—and the treacherous sliding soil. Under the direction of Colonel W. C. Gorgas, also of the United States Army, the Canal Zone, one of the world's worst plague spots, was transformed. Mosquito breeding pools were filled, paving and sewage systems put in, and screened eating and sleeping places provided. “Today,” says an officer of the Department of Sanitation, “healthy Americans work with vim under the hot sun and play baseball and other games. American women do housework, play tennis, ride horseback and dance enthusiastically, and their chubby little children, born and raised in Panama, play on the lawns.”
How the Great Work was Accomplished. While modern sanitary methods and an expenditure of $20,000,000 changed living conditions, the sliding soil had to be dealt with to the end. These slides were particularly troublesome in Culebra cut. Sometimes there was iron pyrites in the soil and, this being exposed, created enough heat to prematurely explode the dynamite used in excavation work. “In case the soil was heated to a dangerous extent” writes Colonel Goethals, “it was allowed to cool before loading with dynamite.”
Look at our illustrations and imagine the network of machinery in motion, the high speed cableways carrying building materials back and forth in buckets of three to five tons capacity at the rate of twenty miles an hour, the steam shovels taking up five to six tons with each scoop, 115 locomotives hauling 2,000 cars to the dumps from 1 to 33 miles away, and 21 cars, each carrying 600 tons, being cleared of their loads with plow unloaders in from four to six minutes. In this way you can form some conception of the process by which this great contribution to peace and commerce was actually accomplished in eight years, after being talked about for four centuries and attempted
