“The ships will come up out of the sea through this cut,” Peter explained.
“Then they’ll climb the hill,” scorned Jimmie.
“They will stop down there,” said Peter, “and the lock gates will be closed, and the water will lift them to the level of the lake.”
“I don’t see no lake,” observed the skeptical Jimmie.
“The lake will lie where the low land is, over there,” replied Peter, pointing. “The Gatun dam will block the water and make a lake 85 feet above sea level, covering one hundred and sixty-four square miles of earth.”
“So the most of the canal will be lake?” asked the boy.
“Quite a lot of it,” was the reply.
“And if any one should blow up the dam, after it gets on its job, the ships would have to climb a ladder if they got over to Panama,” he exclaimed.
“Something like that,” Peter said.
“Where is the Gatun dam?” asked Jack.