To Find Out More

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT the Society for Industrial Archeology, which leads tours of industrial sites each year and publishes a newsletter and a journal and has local chapters around the country, write to Society for Industrial Archeology Headquarters, Department of Social Sciences, Michigan Technical University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931. Membership is open to anyone interested and costs thirty-five dollars a year. Many of the major cruise lines book cruises that include canal transits; you can also arrange a ride through on a smaller craft like the one we were on; call Eco-Tours de Panama, 011-507-263-3077. It schedules transits weekly during the dry season, January through March; the price runs around $110 per person. No matter how you go, first read David McCullough’s magisterial book The Path Between the Seas , available in a Touchstone paperback at $14.95.