This busy hive of labour will soon present a very different aspect. With the approach of the canal to completion the numbers of the workmen will gradually be reduced. A drastic process of sifting and selection will be carried out among the Americans employed on the works. Only about 2,500 men will be necessary to operate the canal, when it is in full working order. These will be established at the locks and other important points. In fact, the canal authorities recommend a complete depopulation of the isthmus except, of course, the terminal cities and the operating stations on the canal. Otherwise, they think, a large expense for sanitation will be necessary which might thus be avoided. But the question of defence must not be forgotten. It will certainly be found advisable to maintain a pretty large American garrison at the isthmus, and to the population we have mentioned perhaps even 8,000 American troops must be added. The busy scenes still prevailing in the canal zone will now soon have disappeared like a dream, and the future traveller who looks from the ship-rail over the shining waters of Gatun Lake or beyond to the vast and silent tropical forest will have difficulty in reconstructing the spectacle which the narrow lands presented during the ten strenuous years of construction. FOOTNOTES: [13] _The Times_, September 26, 1912. [14] This is the figure of official recruiting. Very many more came to the isthmus of their own accord. CHAPTER XI. THE PROBLEM OF CONSTRUCTION. We may now begin to consider the canal itself, the problems which its designers had to solve, the methods of construction, and the features of the completed work. As we have seen, the first two and a half years were a time mainly of preparation for the titanic enterprise of excavation and construction. In fact, it might have been better if the work during that period had been entirely restricted to scavenging, sewering, and so forth. The labourers were hurried a little too fast to the isthmus, before the isthmus was properly cleaned up to receive them. Hence the yellow fever panic and difficulties which might have been avoided. The people of the United States were responsible for this over-haste at the start. The great thing, they cried, is to "make the dirt fly." They wanted evidence that the steam-navvies were actually at work in the bed of the canal and that the task was well in hand. In fact, the public at home took an interest in the canal operations which was sometimes embarrassing. Some newspaper man at the isthmus would report an accident or unforeseen difficulty, probably with a good deal of exaggeration, an anxious excitement sprang up among the people, and special commissions had to go to the isthmus in order to investigate the true state of affairs and if possible restore confidence at home.