The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-01
The suez CANAL.

Almost Simultaneously with the completion of
the railway which is to connect the opposite coasts
of the North American continent we shall pro.
badly have 70 record the triumph of another
great work Of human ingenuity aud perseverance,
which is to- unite the Mediterranean and Indian
seas. The project of cutting chip canal through
the hundred miles Of sand which unite the CONT
nents OF Africa aud Asia Is as ole as the age of
the PharaOhs, and nearly twenty five centur 8
agoa chanpel was finished from the Nile to the
Gultof suez, twothiTds of it. or 60 miles, cut by
the labor OF man. II was repeatedly choked up
with the drifting sands of the desert, and reDea.
edly reopened. AT last, over thousand years
ago, IT, was finally abandoned. The first Napoleon
designed new canal, but was deferred by the re-
port OF his engineers, who decided that the level
of the Mediterranean was 80 feet below the level
OF the Red Sea. This proved to be an error, for
the two bodies of water have exactly the same
mean level and when this fact was ascertaned,
undertaking disappeared.
The cuttings have now been going on under the
direction OF that enterprising French gentleman,
nj. de Lesseps, for nearly ten years, and ons or
perhaps two years more will see the end of the N.
HIS plan makes no use of the Nile, except as a
feeder, but the canal runs in nearly straight
line across the isthmus from Port Said on the
Mediterranean TO suez at the head of the Gulf of
the same name, which sets up from the Red s "a.
AT each end an enormous port has to be con-
structed, running the one three and the other five
miles out from land, in order TO secure perna-
nent depth of water sufficient for large shns AID
also al the Mediterranean end to protect the ca nal
from the enormous deposits O. mud which a'e
continually carried down by the Nile and swept
eastward along the shore. The canal is about 100
miles long and 100 yards wide, and when finished
will be &c feet deep. Already so miles of it have
been excavated TO the full width and opened TO
the sea- and forty enormous dredging m ichiues
hoat on IL, digging out the channel the required
depth. ~
The remaining so miles are in various stages of
prORress but a naygable passage has been
opened, and not long since a French war vessel
passed through on the way to Madagascar. This
was not the tiIst ship, however. that crossed the
lshmus Of Snez. During the Abyssinian war
British gunbOats took the same route and as early
indeed as August, 1865, a vessel Of some sort
probably Of very light draught-was also loated
through. The complete success OF NJ. de Lesseps'
scheme involves no other problems, therefore
than time and money very little time and great
deal OF money. The rate Of expenditure now is
above Sl2 .5OO,O 900 year, and after the work is
finished the keeping Il in order will be yery cost
~. Beside the difficulty of protecting the banks.
exposed as they will be to driving winds and the
wssh OF large steamers, there will be another
serious trouble in the 500 tuns Of sand which h ia
calculated will be drifted into the canal from the
desert every day. These difficulties are by no
means insuperable, nor even seriously perpIexing:
out tney Will prove expensive.-GN. Y. Tribune.
TIE FRENcH CABLE CoxPANY.-It appears that
the French Cable Company has bought from
Leigh Howard, of New York, charter granted |
by the Legislature Of New York Comforting on |
them valuable telegraph franchise. Part Of the |
purchase money was conditioned upon the pro. |
curement OF the opinion of Chief Justice c Ease
10 the erect that the charter confers the exclusive
night TO lay and work cables between the shores
and islands of New York and France so that no |
future act either of the Legislature Of the State
or OF the Congress Of the United States can limit
that right or authorize any one else TO interfere
with its enjoyment. The chief Justice declined 10
give an opinion, and recommended B. r. Curtis |
From him. and from Mr.. Evarts, unsatisfactory
opinions were received. The company next made |
trial Of Reyerdy Johnson, and procured his |
opinion, in banquet speech. In the course of |
hls remarks our minister said he would remind his
niepds belonging to the empire of France of the
and which they rendered to America in the reyc.
iuuon: Ihelr government did not differ much
from England in the great principles upon which
u was founded. They had made each State SOW.
sion OF its own territory. Therefore. he coud not
understand how the doubt had risen, What the
company wanted altogether he did not pre ciselv
know, but he supposed they wanted As much al
they could get; but if they wanted TO carry their
wires into Maryland. and get permission Of the
S'ste' no one could hinder them from going there.
FIeHrNe IN MExco.-The Ranchero Of Christ.
mas day has an account Of fight between the
troops OF Brsulio Vargas and Cortins, in which
tne Iatter got the best Of the fight Amspc the
prisoners captured by Cortns was Vargas sec
ona IN command. This man had been shot bv
oroer OF Cortins. On hearing Of the shooting Of
L ns neusnaht, argas Immediately retalisted BY |
having me brother of Gov. CARA who was pris.
oner IN his hands, taken out and shot. This yanng
gsnuemsn, Don Thomas Cara, was highly
esteemed py large circle of friends He had |
peen wounded early In the engagement with the |
s,gands under vargas, and kept prisoner until
s ssneveo from earthly cares by order of his as