Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-09-30
The Suez Ship Canal.

The Suez Ship Canal
While America is rejoicing at the great
success attained in constructing railroad
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, ahe ID
startled by the announcement that q
greater work and one not less valuable ia
the Eastern World, is also completed.
The Suez ship canal, ninety miles in
length, three hundred and eighty.five
feet in width, and twenty-five to thirty
feet feet in depth, will soon furnish ship
passage between the Mediterranean and
Red Seas. The idea of building this
great work originated in the mind OF
Napoleon l., but nothing was done in his
day towards its contamination, farther
than to make survey of the route,
which, by the measurements then made,
showed difference of thirty feet in the
level of the two seas. We are of opinion
that later surveys make this difference
much less; indeed we cannot see why
there should be any difference except that
produced by tides.
Fifteen years ago French company
entered into contract with the Egyptian
government to build this canal, with the
condition that they should have control
OF it for the term of ninety-nine years
from the time Of its completion, agreeing
to give TO the Egyptian government a
royalty Of fifteen per cent. of the net
profits.
The onterprise'is private one, but we
Of arc opinion that the French and Egyp-
tian governments both lent their aid in
the furtherance Of the work. At the
Great Exposition in 1867, in temple OF
Egyptian style Of architecture, which was
built by order Of tho Viceroy, there was
exhibited large typographical model Of
tho country through which the suez Ga
nal was 10 pass. This attracted great Mt
tention, and tho French and Egyptians
were apparently equally interested in it's
exhibition. From this model II appeared
that largo section Of tho country to be
travorsed by tho canal was sandy re-
gion, much like that at tho southern end
Of Lake Michigan where tho sand ia piled
by the wind into hills like hugo snow
drifts. Although it is easy TO shovel in a
sand bank, yet it is found that excava-
tions in sand are often hard to be made.
Messrs. Borel and Levalley, contractors
on the work, adopted novel way for re-
moving the sand. With steam engines
they pumped water into the ditch and
then dredged out the wet sand and con-
veyed it on an endless elevator, far
out upon the banks of the canal. Over
eight thousand men were employed on
this canal at one time, and although the
wages for day laborers was only two
francs, thirty.eight cents, per day, the
cost will not be less than SSO,OO0,OOO.
Aside from the immediate cost of max
ing the canla, there are many other Incl
dental expenses, that will come in. For
instance, those in interest dread the sand
storms from the desert, as much as the man.
ayers Of the Vermont rail roads do snow
drifts upon the Green Mountains, and it
will take considerable sums of money to
defray the expenses of guarding against
sand storms from the desert, and doubt
less large sums must be annually expended
in dredging out the'sand that will find
its way into the canal Another large
item of expense will result from the build
ing Of wharves at Suez on the Red Sea
and Said on the Mediterranean At the
latter place, in the absence Of suitable
stone for the purpose they use blocks of
composite stone, an artificial rock that is
made of hydraulic cement and other in
gradients, that form substance as hard
and durable az granite. A brealxn alter of
this is to be built far out into the sea to
prevent the filling up Of the harbor by
the deposits Of the Nile which empties into
the Mediterranean, some twenty miles
west of Said. But, Notwithstanding all
these drawbacks, this work must be re-
garded one of the greatest ever under
taken by man, and as the distance from
Europe to the Indies ia SO materially
shortened, and the shipper is enabled to
take his cargo through by paying a toll
of about 50 per ton, without breaking
bulk, it liz likely that most of the shipping
trade will pass by this route, and thus
make the great investment a paying one