Some idea of the way in which Colonel Goethals made the dirt fly may be gathered from the fact that in the first five years of his directorship, down to April 1912, he removed 160 million cubic yards of material. "If all this material," writes Mr. Showalter, "could be placed in a solid shaft of the shape of the Washington Monument, with a base as large as an average city block, it would tower more than six miles skyward, overtopping the earth's loftiest mountain peak by more than a mile. Again, if it were to be loaded on to the big Lidgerwood dirt cars used on the canal, it would make a string of them reaching over two and a half times around the earth, and requiring a string of engines reaching from New York to Sac Francisco to move them." It is indeed a remarkable achievement that, while the amount of material to be removed was increased by about 90 per cent., the time of removal was cut down by 30 per cent. Nor has the increase of the work added to the estimate of cost. The total cost of the completed canal was fixed in 1908 at 375 million dollars. Yet, in spite of the increased excavations, enough of this sum, it is calculated, will be left over to build a new breakwater, and perhaps a big storage reservoir at Alhajuela on the upper reaches of the Chagres River. In the Culebra Cut, despite the landslides, the cost of excavation has actually been reduced by more than one-third. [Illustration: Culebra Cut, from West Bank, showing Shovels at Work.] The pessimists have of course been busy with these landslides in the "Cut." They predicted that the canal along this section would always be exposed to danger from that source. But here, too, every precaution has been taken. The engineers have given a much lower slope to the sides of the canal, which is therefore wider at the top than had been originally planned. The slopes will also be sown with creeping grasses and other plants, which will bind down the surface soil. When the forty-five feet of water are in the canal, the bottom will be held down by the weight, and the bulgings no longer take place. Moreover, any earth that, in spite of all precautions, still manages to slide into the canal should be easily dealt with by the big 20-inch suction dredges, which can be brought up through the locks and set to work. So we need not trouble much about the stability of things along this nine-mile section through the Culebra Mountains.