The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-01-09
Guaz Canal.


Amos. Simultaneously with the completion Of
the railway which is to connect the opposite
coats Of ,he North American continent we -hall
probably have 10 record the Triumph Of smother
great work of human Ingenuity and perseyer-
aace which is - mite the Mediterranean aud
Indiau Seas. The pre- ect Oh cutting ship ca
nal through the hundred miles OF sand which
unite the continents OF Africa and Asia is as old
as the age If the PhacHohs, and nearly twenty
five centuries ago channel was finished irnia
the Nile 10 the Gulf Of Sue2, twothirds Of ii, nr
about sixty miles, cut 10y the labor Of man. IL
was repeatedly chokod up with the drifting
eands OF the desert, and repeatedly reopened. AZ
last, over i thousand years ago, it was finally
ubondoned. The First NcpoiCUn designed
new canal, but was deferred by the report OF the
engineers who decided that the level OF the
Mediterranean was thirty feet below the level OF
the Red Sea. Thi, proved 10 De al error, for the
two bodies OF water have exactly the same mean
level and when this fact was escertained more
than half the difficulties in the way Of the nm
dertakinc disappeared. The cuttings have nov
been .roing on under the direction OF that e.irG-
prsing French gentleman, VI. de i4"s-eps t"c
nearly ten years, one oY perhaps two years more
will see the. end Of them His plan makes no
use II the Nile, except as feeder. but the en-
nal runs i'll nearly straight line across the 18th
mus iron. Port Said on the Mediterranean tn
Snez at the head of the Gulf Of the same maine,
which sets up from the Red Sea. AT each end
aA enormous port has to be constructed, running
the one three and the other five miles out from
land, in order to secure q permanent depth Of
Of water suiicient for large ships and also at the
Mediterranean end 10 protect the canal from the
enormous deposits OF mud which are continually
carried down by The Milo and swept eastward
along the shore. The canal is about 100 miles
long and 100 yards wide, and when finished Will
he GO Zee. deep. Already 90 miles OF it haye
been oxclvated 10 the full width and avcned to
the ses, aud forty enormous dredging machi mes
float ou il, digging out the channel 70 the re-
quired depth. The remaining 90 miles are In
various stages Of progress; but nsvGab!e p1''
sage has been opened, and not long since -
French war vessel passed through on the way 70
Madagascar. This was not the first ship, how
ever, that crossed the isthmus Of Suez. During
tho Abyssinian war British gunhoats took the
same route and 90 early indeed ms August, 1865,
u vessel OF some so,t, probably OF very light
dyaught, was also aoated through. The COM
pete success Of N. de Iesseps scheme involves
no other problems. therefore, than time and mon
sy; very little .i.ne and great deal Of money.
The rate OF expenditure Eow 10 about sl2,ouOUoV
wear and after the work is finished the Keeping
it IN order Will be very costly. Beside the diiii-
Guilty Of protecting the banks exposed as they
will be 10 driving winds and the wash OF large
steamers there will be another serious trouble in
the 500 tons of sand which it is calculated will
be dritea into the canal from the desert every
day These difficulties are by no means insspera-
bic, nor cyen seriously porplexng, but viii prove
expensive.
The indianapolis Sentinel says; LII ,La cir