The French engineers estimated that the excavation would be about 157,000,000 cubic yards, that eight years would be required for completion, and that the cost would be $127,600,000. Work proceeded continuously until 1887, when a change to the lock type was made in order to secure the use of the canal as soon as possible, it being understood that the construction of a sea-level canal was not to be abandoned but merely deferred until financial conditions would allow its completion. This new plan placed the summit level above the Chagres river, and proposed to supply this summit level with water pumped from that stream. Work went on until 1889 when the company became bankrupt; and on February 4, a liquidator was appointed to take charge of its affairs. Work was stopped on May 15, 1889. The liquidator appointed a commission of eleven engineers to give him technical advice as to the condition of the work and the best methods for its completion. Five of these commissioners visited the Isthmus and reported on May 5, 1890. The report contained plans for the completion of a lock canal and emphasized the necessity for more complete examinations before beginning work. This advice was followed by the liquidator who at once took steps for the formation of a new company, and at the same time continued to take careful observations on the Isthmus, and these observations have been of great value since then. The New Panama Canal Company was organized in October, 1894. It proposed to construct a sea-level canal from the Atlantic as far as Bohio (See Map, pp 45), where a dam was to form a lake as far as Bas Obispo, the difference in elevation being overcome by two locks. The summit level extended from Bas Obispo to Paraiso, and was reached by two more locks and received water from an artificial reservoir formed by a dam at Alhajuela in the upper Chagres valley. Four dams were located on the Pacific side, the two middle ones at Pedro Miguel combined in a flight. Work continued on this plan up to the time of the Spanish-American War in 1898. About that time a “Comite Technique”, as it was called, composed of seven French and seven foreign engineers who had been appointed by the Board of Directors of the New Company, submitted its final report upon the canal. It was estimated that, at a cost of $100,000,000 a canal suitable for all commercial needs could be completed in 10 years.