The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-09 00:00:00

THE SUEZ CANAL.

A spec!al correspondent of the Daily .IVetrs, who is now
at the Suez Canal, awaiting the fates which are to com-
mence on the 17th inst., writes home two long and inte-
resting letters, describing a couple of voyages he had made on
the great artificial river, and giving his general conclusions
about the great work. The first voyage was made from
Ismalia, on Lake Tismah, to Port Said. The following is
an abstract of the " special's " description of his journey :--;
"Lake Timsah is, as everyone knows, about midway
between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, so that the
inspection about to be described embraced in round num -
bers fifty miles of the canal, or half its entire length. The
experience was so utterly unlike what had been expected
beforehand that it partook of the nature of a surprise. The
very word canal seems misapplied to a continuous sheet
of water, the surface of which is wider than the Thames
at Richmond, where flying fish skim before you, and
which is literally crammed with sea-fish, as the constant
jumps and eddying circles prove. A canal again, in spite
of ail one has read of this particular one, does vaguely
suggest locks and tow-ropes, and barges dragged by horses.
Hero sailing vessels, with the curious sails and lofty
tapering masts of the Nile boats, are almost always in
sight ; some bearing stores to the various stations, others
carrying a motley lead of Mussulmans, Egyptians, and
g rimy mechanicians to and from their work. A broad
and handsome river, which suns straight to its
destiration, instead of indulging in devious windings,
is what the Suez Canal resembles most at a
first glance. Your steamer is licensed to carry forty
first and thirty second class passengers, and has saloons and
a deck over them like some of the boats running between
London and Gravesend. For the first quarter of an hour
or so you might be going out to sea, so rapidly do the
waters expand to right and left. Then a corner to the left
is reached, and the •vord is given to go slowly, and in a few
minutes more you arc on the Canal, and having the point
at which it joins Lake Timsah en its other or Suez side
shewn you in the distance. We pass through a narrower
part of the Canal on leaving Lake Timsah than we meet
with again. Even here, however, the waters are of con-
siderable width, and for the first hour we see camels.
donkeys, and labourers, literally by the thousand, at work
upon the banks. No view of the country is to be had.
A magnified railway cutting, the sloping banks of which
are of sand, and the space between each side of which is
the width of many railway lines, is what the canal
resembles most. The breadth from point to point from
each embankment-top is enormous, and when it is remem-
bered that this represents the degree of excavation which
has taken place, the wonders of the Suez Canal far trans-
cend all your pievious estimates concerning it. It will
be understood that the width of surface-water
does not affect its practicability for the transit
of great ships. These must keep in a prescribed channel
in the centre, and it is agreed on all hands that as two
cannot pass each other in this at the same time, the same

precautions will have to be taken as on a single line of
railway. Accordingly, sidings will be constructed every
six or eight miles, into which the ship going one way will
be shunted, while those on the opposite tack go on. At
present, however, the chief point of interest is the effect
of the opening on the lith ; and on Oct. 26 some of the
Peninsular and Oriental Co.'s officers arrived here from
Suez, taking careful soundings all the way, with the view of
ascertaining how far the canal is already practicable for

'arge vessels. Th.lr report is that much has yet to be
auuu, but that the engineers admit this, while insisting
that all will be ready before the opening day. As the
soundings taken yesterday gave fire feet and a half in
certain places, it is to Le hoped the engineers are right.
On the 11th, however, the Viceroy's yacht, which draws

fi•om 17 to 22 feet of water, will leave Port Said for Suez,

making an experimen`al trip, and, if all goes well, the
Viceroy himself will go over the same ground (or water) in
her the nest day. The passenger by steamer finds it dill-

cult to reali3e that there is anything in the way of the
inauguration leing a success, for his craft draws but little
-.eater, and though he feels it grating against the bottom
once for a moment, it is explained that this is before he is
nut of the shallows of one Portion of Lake Timsah, and
does not bear upon the Canal.

Under date October 29th, some further investigations
are recorded :—" Since posting my letter (says the
"special") I have steamed along the Canal again at a steady
tate of nine knots an hour, and have spent another day
in sounding its depths at parts said to be critical. The
circumstances under which I was enabled to do this were
peculiarly favourable to independent observation.
No Frenchman and no official connected with
either the Egyptian Government or the Suez
Canal Company were of the party; and the lead
was heaved and measurements were taken and recorded
•-ntil the precise state of the Canal and the extent
4 its fitness for great ships are as well known to us as
they can possibly be to any one. It is highly satisfactory
to be able to confirm generally the statements of the
French engineers. There can be no sort of doubt that a
,leep passage exists all the way between the Red Sea
znd the Mediterranean, that there is an abundant supply'

of water, and that vessels can and do pass along the
entire canal. The width of this passage on the 17th
November, and whether all its remaining shoals will
have been removed by that date, are the only points
upon which difference of opinion can arise. The great'
'urface breadth of the Canal, to which I have already
alluded as most impressive to a stranger, has, of course,
nothing to do with its capacity for bearing largo ships.

It is the freedom from obstruction of the central channel
upon which their safety must depend ; and upon which
English owners must be satisfied before availing them-
selves of the route. This can be only tested by such a
course as I have taken part in, or by a ship of a certain
draught passing through or sticking fast. Taking
the posts or buoys which mark out one side of this
channel as our standing point, we measured and
:auged as I have said, and arrived at the unanimous con-
clusion that while it would be impossible for the Viceroy's
yacht, the Mahroussa, which draws eighteen feet of water,
1-,o pass from sea to sea now, it is quite probable that
matters will have been so far advanced by the 12th, the day
fixed for the experiment to be tried privately,that she will
do so without material hitch. That that there is some
tide in the canal is insisted upon. We were at some pains
to collect and compare the local evidence on this disputed
point ; and while all we spoke to declared there was a rise
and fall, varying in their statement from two inches to
six, none would agree to this being due to wind, but
?ointed to a regular water-line which they averred to be
'aigh water mark. Another point to which we gave more
attention than I was able to bestow upon it during previous
visits, was the action of the water upon the Canal's
aides. These sides or banks vary considerably in
character. Now stretching to a great height,
sow low-lying ; now composed of fine dry sand,
aow of sand which is intermingled with mud, and
comparatively hard. Throughout you feel yourself on a
mighty river, rather than on an artificial channel. Where
the sides look softest, and where the marks of camels'
hoofs sink deepest and clumsiest into the soil, the ripples
from two steamers meeting certainly bring down lumps of
sand, and countless small holes, as if burrowed by
minute animals, show that these portions are under-
mined by the action of the water. Summing up his
conclusions, the Daily; .2rews correspondent says :—" 1, in
common with other observers, regard it as unfortunate
that the formal inauguration of this great enterprise
should not have been delayed at least a few months
longer ; and while of opinion that largo ships may be
piloted through from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea
on the 17th November, consider that the proceeding will
not be free from risk, and will need the nicest pilotage.
But that the unbroken communication between sea and
sea is no myth, and that a further and perhaps
continuous expenditure of capital, labour, and skill in the
direction which has already accomplished so much, are
done needed to make the Suez Canal a practicable high-
..vay for the nations of the earth, must be obvious to all
who have eyes to see. Independent investigation hay
,;roved that a canal of the proportions stated by the
engineers, namely, sixty or sixty-five feet wide, and
twenty-four or twenty-six deep, is formed, always except-
ing certain obstructions not yet cleared away.

General Garibaldi has Written to a friend to say
bat ho still contemplates visiting tho North of Englagcl
before