New-York daily tribune., 1856-05-03
THE ISKANDEROON AND CRANE RAIL
ROAD

A psptr on Syria wa. read by Dr.. RAPBALL before
well attended meeting Of the Geographical Society on
Thursday night The learned Rabbi gave at grestle length
the ply scal features Of the Holy Land and SYRIA In
alludpg to Leut LyDehs Expedition TO the Dead ses,
be ssid that perhaps owed its origin TO the Judgment
Of a righteous God. Tuning to Arabia be spoke Oh
the Wahabte ware and bewsled the Darro~ limit oil
our knowledge with regard 10 this country of million
.qusre mes in spite Of the heroic attempts OF Back
hsrdt and Burton. Only regular exploring eIpeai-
tion dispatched by government aud p'otected ~ su-
thoriy could open that country ~ us Inc syrian
de..rt was cal.d FL Hamed which sigaifed the desr,
able. The root appf ared In the names Ahmed ana
Moi smDed. And when it was compared with tDe
wastes of SAHARA, II was evident that the oientn
name the more True. Tois desert contained beau
tiful villages aLd abounded in large meadows witn
abunc ant psstursge, the native home OF the camel ~
was calico the othtr Of camels, aud they ooali
be brought there at tl0 per head. The Sultan ani
the FasLa drew their best horses from this country,
which was called Nedj. year of plenty was always
followed by year Of famine. Tne Arabs were TO
great extent a misunderstood people. In tn,
together in villages, and grew law-abdiDg and wei.
G. noucted A German bad travelled through Arabia
a, edouib, and published his notes IN TIE Jo~r1t
Of Ike G.ographeai !Soc'ety. After detailing his
routes Dr. Ropba spoke of the projects for the Sdez
Canal at present en tained by the French, the
proposed by Ebglishmen, and the Russian Rail
whLed he said to strengthen her influence and
her sovereignty of Madagascar Great Britain only
wished to occupy 1Dd;a fact she could. Neither
cared anything for the Iatives The Russians hal an
eye to Inoia. IL must be confessed that the Russian
prQj, ct would confer greater good the Orentals
than either OF the others. II remained for fourth
nation to PROFOUND plan which, though American in
It's origin, stOud be universal in its benefits. That
plan was a railroad from AleIsndretts, the most iq-
pOrtant hsrbCr Of the Mediterranean TO the most i'm
portant bar Dor of the Per-ian Gulf, following in the
main the course of the River Euphrates. The road
could be built for sl5 0OU,OO0, winch had been
pendt for the Illinois Central Railroad. Ii the cars
driven at 60 miles an hour, the reg liar rate
of the London and Great Western Railroad,
q man might the sun rlse from tue Persi4n gulf
and anve in I-kanderoon in time 10 his last rays
streaming the Mediterranean He had the au-
thorty Of distinguished Arab geograpber for saying
that there would be difficulty in finding fuel for the
locomotives. Dr. Raphal proceeded to detail the way
freight should be obtained Toe immense advantage
which would be afforded to invalids by giving them
easy access to every variety Of climate their pareu
lar might require Northern syria had the
climate of Syria, Palestine bai temperate climate
and the valley Of the Jordan enjoyed tropical
warmth. The air Of the desert WIS more conducive
than any other to long life, and the waters OF lisyre
were pOwerfuly peptic that there was say
ing that a might eat whole sheep and d-
glst it if he but drank a bowl of that water
From Robertss Views of Palestine DIR. Raphali ex-
hlbit1d specimen Of the architecture of Petra, which
he thought considerably ahead Of anything which
Fifth avenue could show, 80 far. The old Romans
great people and built road right through the
DE- sert TO the Euphrates which was still as firm aud a.
hard as the day after ii finished. And the desert
offered no greater difficulties than il did then. What
they CO uld do to subdue mankind, could certainly
do 10 benefit mankind. They had nothing more than
we, t3ctpt a thorough Knowledge Of the country.
When We had that, he had no doubt that the lskan-
deroon az Crane Railroad would be built He hoped
that the Government would follow out the Dead
Sea Expedition by another through the Syrian
Desert. The United States at pres-
cnff fb M and
our part would be gladly received He hoped that the
Society would appoint Committee TO confer with the
Government ON the subject of renewing the Expedi-
ton. The idea Of the Iskanderoon and Crane Raj
road not original with him with the gentleman
from whom he obtained IT, and who had conferred with
Nj. NJ. Jomard and De Lesseps on that subject. II
was frst started by the Prophet Isaiah when said
Behold bring you something new, and even now it
=" shall spring forth. Will you not recognize it
will cause a road TO be made through the wilderness
and rivers TO flow through tie de; ert."
The usual vote of thanks was passed to Dr. kA-
PHALL and q coyy of his psper requested for the
archives Of the Society.