Reference to the map at the end of the volume will show how considerable is the task of reconstructing the Panama Railroad--what embankments have to be formed, circuits made, and (near Milaflores) a tunnel bored. The track, too, is being doubled, and the rolling stock has been greatly improved. The passenger cars are both comfortable and relatively cool, and the double journey from Pacific to Atlantic Ocean and back again can be pleasantly performed between luncheon and dinner. Much of the verdant forest land on which I have gazed with so much delight from the windows of the cars will soon cease to be land at all. It will be drowned beneath the waters of Lake Gatun; virgin forest, cultivated patch, squatter's hut, villages, and even small towns will disappear, their sites submerged by water, and presently to be covered by the silt of rivers. CHAPTER IV THE MEN ON THE ISTHMUS _West Indian Labour._ THE success of sanitation, and the modern facilities for storage of food, have greatly simplified the task of obtaining an adequate supply of navvies for the pick and spade work. In the United States the American-born, particularly the majority who are of Anglo-Saxon stock, now form an aristocracy of labour, and for the last fifteen years or so have performed but little of the pick and spade, or ordinary navvy's, work. In the Southern States the unskilled labour is mainly performed by the American negro. Elsewhere the pick and spade work is done by new immigrants, some of whom settle, and some go home with their savings. They are largely from Southern and Central Europe, many being Italians, and in the extreme West there are Japanese also. [Illustration: GANG OF WEST INDIAN LABOURERS.] [Illustration: GANG OF SPANISH LABOURERS AT CULEBRA.] The Commission, however, did not recruit in the United States, in order not to disturb the labour market there, but sought elsewhere for the supply of unskilled labour. At first they relied almost entirely upon the West Indian negro, who formed the majority of the navvies employed under the French Companies. The Commission, however, were profoundly dissatisfied with the result. In December, 1906, they reported that-- "Another year's experience with negro labourers from near-by tropical islands and countries has convinced the Commission of the impossibility of doing satisfactory work with them. Not only do they seem to be disqualified by lack of actual vitality, but their disposition to labour seems to be as frail as their bodily strength." Nevertheless, they are still employed in undiminished numbers on the Isthmus, and the tone of the authorities towards them has changed. This change is noticeable both in the official publications and also in the conversation of the foremen immediately in charge. With regard to the latter, I found a great difference of tone between January, 1907, and April, 1908.