Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1855-02-24
From the .National htsAigsneer.
THE CANAL ROUTE.

ittu ctWs
Messrs. EDITORS Will you allow one
who seven years since passed over the
entire length of the canal from AleXan-
drIa to Suez TO correct some errors into
which the writer's for the London Times.
New York Commercial Advertiser, and
Boston Journal have fallen while speak
ing of the project of Nj. LessePs, and
which are contained in the article eniI-
tied "The Path of Oriental Trade copi-
ed into your paper of to-day! The ex-
cursion was novel and interesting one,
of lonely traveller, occupying eleven days
in circuit by camels, from Cairo TO Suez.
1t was before. and since has been, sub
iect of careful study and comparison in
the works of the standard Greek and
Latin historians on Egypt and in the
great work of Napoleon's savans, copy
Of which is or was accessible in the
Library Of Congress.
Herodotus visited Egypt about five
hundred and thirty years before Christ,
during the Persian supremacy, two hund-
red wears before Alexander the Great, and
it was his pictures in fact of India and
other lands Of the East which Alexander,
when boy, read, and by which his am
bilious schemes were prompted. Hero
dolus describes the canal reaching from
the Nile out to the line Of Salt Lakes,
which extend from the head of the Gull
of Suez to Lake Menzaleh, opening INTO
the Mediterranean Sea. This canal was
commenced in the early days Of Egypts
greatness by Ramses the Great, and fin,
ished by Neco; DarIos the Persian being
out of compliment, also alluded TO as a
patron. The design Of the canal had
been to open ship transit from RhacolIs'
afterwards Alexandria, the 0niy harbor
on the coast of Egypt, to the Red Sea,
the Egyptian monarchs hoping thus to
gain Share of the rich trade which the
Phenicians and Hebrews were carrying
on, bringing the products of India (or
Ophir) through to the Mediterranean, by
way of the Red Sea. to modern Akalcah,
and also up the Euphrales, opposite Tad
NOR, afterwards Palmyra and thence a.
cross by camels, carrying those products
then by sea to Greece, and all along the
northern shore of the Mediterranean,
even beyond the Pillars Of Hercules, (lhe
Straits of Gibraltar to Tarslsh, or Tar
tesses, near modern Cadiz, in Spain.
When, however, the canal Of the Pharaohs
had been cut to the line of Bitter Lakes,
and long narrow inland lake of fresh
water had been formed by the inlet Of
the sweet waters Of the Nile, which He
rodotus beautifully describes, they learn
ed from their sages that the level OF the
Red Sea was above that of the Nile and
Of the Mediterranean, and therefore they
did not dare to complete their project,
lest the waters Of the Red Sea flowing in
should deluge the lower part oil Egypt.
Here HerodOtnS of course leaves the
subject.
Just after the Roman conquest, about
forty years before Christ, the mastery
historian Diodorus, and the incompatible
geographer Strabo, visited and minutely
described Egypt. They speak of this
canal as open from Alexandra TO the
head of the Red Sea, and of seeing in
Vulnerable vessels thronging through it
from India, going 10 Puteoli, the port of
Rome. The New Testament reader will
recall the two Alexandria ships in which
Paul sailed. They say that Sesotris (the
same with Ramises the Great cut the
canal TO the Sweet Lake formed in the
bed Of the dese..; bat that he left it un-
finished, because he feared TO let the
waters Of the Red Sea upon the country.
Ptolemy, however, the successor of Al
eXander, who built the city of his name,
invenling an "ingenious lock-" opened
the canal from the Red Sea TO the Lake.
Pliny afterwards describes il on his visit,
and specially mentions the difference OF
level-to use his own words ".he Red
Sea being found TO be higher by three
cubits than the land of Egypt" 1T
was not until the time OF the later Roman
Emperors that this canal through the
Desert was neglected, and the Roman
sailing up the Nile to Cap
tos, received their wares across the de-
sert from Bernice.
p During the succeeding Moslem sway
it was still neglected, till NaPoeon's day.
No careful reader of The great work of the
savans who accompanied him can doubt
what the main end Of his expedition was;
for those men constantly avow it. The
better portion OF his two years in Egypt
was spent in surveys along The line oi
this canal and at the head of the gulf OF
Suez. They took the most accurate
levels along the whole line; their field
notes are published in the work in erfs''ss
and the traveller can now follow them