Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1869-08-07
IsmArIIA, ON THE surz CANAL. April

We are down on the Isthmus at one
of the little baby towns on the canal,
named for His Highness, Ismail Pasha.
The little towns themselves are worth
coming to sec, even without the great
canal, they are such brisk, enterprising,
jolly little places, and such wonderful
contrast to the desert out of which thev
are made. Five or six years ago there
was not a drop of water, or blade OF
grass, or human habitation, where Is
MALTA now stands; and now there is a
town Of some four thousand inhabitants,
nicely laid out streets, a pretty public
square with fountain, charming villas,
aud gardens full OF fruits and flowers,
besides great lake through which flows
the canal. The wilderness has literally
'budded and blossomed like rose" and
it is queer that the tultillment of prophecy
should have come by means of dredging
machines and steam engines. 60 n
We have seen the canal under the best
auspices. A little steamer was put at
our disposal, and M. La Tour, the Amer
ican Vice Consul, went with us across
Lake Timsah Crocodile Lake, and down
the canal as far as the Bitter Lakes, be-
tween here and Suez, showing us all the
works and the neat little stations ON the
way, and the gradual filling OF the Bitter
Lakes, which will soon torm-out of q
natural basin in the desert--another
great inland sea. This is fed by the
canal from the Mediterranean only, as
yet, but the Red Sea also will soon pour
INTO it from the other side. The little
camps and villages all along the banks
are as neat and pretty as possible, and
all of them have the loveliest little gar
dens and ,court-yards full of roses and
verbenas and trailing vines, made by
merely watering the desert sand from
the "sweet water" canal which follows
the other all along its length, bringing
Nile water, and with it life aud fertility
to what was, 50 little time ago, a dreary
barren waste. tst...i .,.....Tr
After seeing this immediate neighbor-
hood, we went down by another little
steam tug to Port Said, the Mediterra-
mean terminus of the canal. Here they
have made a great harbor aud busy
little town and q lighthouse, and have
already fleet of several hundred ships
riding at anchor, where four years ago
there was nothing at all.
Nj. Coste, the American Vice Consul,
and also the agent of the Msssagerie
Imperiale, took us all about the town
and harbor, and through the great foun-
dries and workshops; and while we were
there one of his steamers came into port
and dropped anchor at the mouth of the
nj 81 Al l.
and saw for ourselves what large steam
ers could easily ride In the harbor. A
few days before a vessel of 400 tons had
been sent thirty.four .kilos up the canal
to meet the Viceroy and the Prince of
Wales. '' -liiH = -@i'99 ''i b'.iH'
D At Port Said we, stayed at queer
rambling hotel, made of''a row of Amer
lean frame houses, which had served as
officers quarters III the Crimean war,
and are now fitted up neatly in French
style, and set side by side along the sea.
Our journey down there and back to
lsmailia was very jolly. We chartered
a tug for the trip, and a lunch OF bread
and jam and tea, In picnic style. 1t took
all day to go down, with the stoppages
alongshore, aud seven hours the next
day to come back. At the next station,
El Guisr-~ pronounced Geersh-7-we found,
besides the, ordinary village, with gar
dens and cafe and church, the most de-
| lightfull little bachelor establishment, be-
longing to the company's agent. lmag-
inc the most elegant little Italian villa,
full of choice works of art and Eastern
treasures, and surrounded by garden OF
the loveliest flowers, set down like magic
in the very heart of the desert; inside
the garden wall very paradise Of
delights, and outside nothing but bound
less stretches of sand.
SuEz, April live have had a great
lark, the arrival Of long train OF Mecca
pilgrims, on their way back from the
aHadj." They are most of them Syri.
ans or from Upper Asia, and are going
by canal to Port Said. Twetny-six hun
dred of them are on their way northward,
and seven thousand moIe are to follow.
Except that they are never astonished at
any thing, ! should think they would
open their eyes at seeing great, rushing
sea traversing the hitherto traekless
Edesert. / did have homes of buyino car,