Middletown transcript., 1868-08-22
The Great ship Canal.


and the Red Seas will be connected, up
proachcs completion gigantic under
taking, involving in its consumation in
credible labors, immense amounts of
money, tremendous perseverance and re-
markable ingenuity, and yet similar en-
terprise was several times successfully
achieved (but in lesser degree) by the
ancients. Instead of machinery they used
and sacrificed thousands of lives. They,
as the pyramids and other of their works
which remain either in whole or in part,
show, were equal to tasks that we would
never dream of attempting without those
appliances and facilities of science and
art that we are fortunate in possessing.
The company to whom the world viii be
indebted for the success of this great scheme
will undoubtedly be able to fulfil their
promise Of opening the canal to the COM
merce Of the world October, 1st, 1869,
But 20 600, 900 more are needed to per-
feet the work, and an arrangement for
raising this amount by lottery has been
sanctioned in France and will Immediately
go int effect. The entire cost will then
have amounted to $77 900. .000, an aggre-
gate which, in comparison to the advan-
tages it has purchased for mankind, is
really insignificant. The canal is 80 miles
long, 300 feet wide, and of sufficient
depth to accommodate vessels of the lar
gcst draught. On its banks where, nine
years ago, all was silence, sterility and
solitude, are now large, populous, -four
ishing towns--we may say cities. Port
Said 10000 dwellers, J the people inhabi-
ting them hailing from all parts of the
earth, Christianity and Paganism, barba-
rism and civilization, confederating to the
achievement of the one great end, and
presenting the inception and germ of that
ultimate consolidation and blending of
material and spiritual interests of the
East with Europe and America that are
positive to be the happy result
The statistics of the enterprise have al
ready been given to some extent in the
Eppress, but some of interest remain to
be stated Jetties, breakwaters and docks
had to be made against the shifting sands
as we'll as the treacherous waters, and
these are mainly composed of artificial
stone constructed from sea sand and hy-
draulic lime powder rolled into compact
masses and then fashioned into huge
blocks, each costing 800. Some natural
stone, transported from great distances,
was also used. The deepest cutting re-
quired was in the bluffs of El Guisr-69
feet-which extends over length of eight
miles. AT the terminus of the cut is Is
malta, where Swiss keeps a fine hotel,
which is said to resemble in appearance
the Westchester House in the Bowery.
AS soon as a cutting could be effected
through the El Guisr bluffs the water Of
the great sea was allowed to run into il.
II took four months to fill Tmisah, OF
Crocodile Lake, at Ismaila. This viii be
the point at which the entire trade Of
Egypt (and just imagine, if you can,
what this will be after l869) will centre,
and of course an immense city will be
reared there.
On the slope, and in the vicinity Of the
canal, they have set out the pine and all
other trees that will live there, so that the
desert will be made smiling iu more ways
than one.
Suez city viii have an unequalled (artif-
ciaD harbor. Two thousand vessels or
more can ride in the roadstead and from
the roadstead to the docks has been CON-
plotted a"cihsanel half mile wide, twenty.
six feet deep, with three miles of sub.
stantial quay, walled up with artificial
stone already described. There is dry
dock 442 feet long. At every stopping
place, or future city, all the convenience
of social and commercial life are to bt
found already. The hotels are said tt
equal those of this country, and are nu
merous, No doubt we shall be sending
our opera troupes among the Egyptian
ere long, with the same complaicent mat
ter-of-course air that we now witness thei
departure for Paris and London.
England. France, Holland. Sweden
Prussia, Italy and Russia. will reap tire
mendous advantages from this canal, an,
the United States will also derive larg
share of its benefits. England's route t
her Indian possessions will be abridged b,
$500 miles, which will increase her com
merce and bestow great political boons
Our route to Bombay, Madras, Hong
Kong and Japan will also be shortened
to Bombay, from this city, 5000 miles.
The American merchant will be able t
sell cargo in the isthmus of Suaz at Sed
dah and Mocha and Alden, in Arabia, an
up the Persian Gulf, and in return bu
the ivory of Massowah, Abyssinia, Soma
kin and Berbera. Pearls, mother of pearls
tortoise shell, sponges and coral of til
Red Sea; silk and tea from Hong Kong
indigo from Ceylon, gum and coffee fror
Yemen, Yedgaz and Abyssinia, and date
from Egypt, and completes his voyage i
two-thirds the time formerly occupied.
France will be drawn thousands of mile
nearer to her possessions in Cochin Chin
and the Indian Ocean. In short the ben
Gifts will accrue largely to the whole worl
Turkey and Egypt essentially. Th
500, ,000,00 Mussulmens now reposing
the ignorance and sloth of by-gone cen
turies, will not be the smallest gamers b
this great project to be realized in les