New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-13

apiece-these are not at this moment persons 10 DO
enyied But pass all ths-there is much else 10 be
written and the time for writing is scant.
| kt71Iwas on board the P6use, uttering good
by not wholly reluctant to the Guenne The Guienne
is old the P6use is new, is going, the othcr not
-adieu to all sentiments Of gratitude for the snip
that with all her faults has brought US safe through
the Mediterranean to Alexandria, and from Alexan-
dria to Port Said 1t is not her fate to bear US to
IsmaIlia-rOgue la 0alere.
Before we were well on board the Peluse, the
Aigle had got under way and to the sound of cannon
had entered the canal. Before all on board,
the Peluse herself Swung out of her berthcertain
belated journalists sending earnest curses after us
! because we were early and they were late. They
cursed US in German and cursed us In Dutch-lltte
cared We but reversed the omen, and Oyously float
| ed away They are not the only men who are
mingling imprecatons with the blessings that ought
to attend the opening of the gates of the canal tins
morning. All night long Port SAID has been in an
| uproar. Guests Of the Viceroy have been handed
! and hustled about from ship to ship. The Mahza'
| that came from Alexandria with cOnsus and other
inritks. is no luckier than the Gaienne. Her whole
freight of passengers is transhpped and by no means
to one vessel. MIR. Hale was the Mahza. He is in
luck, and comes On board the P6luse. Mr. Iurlbut
gets on board launch No Z, and goes at midnight IN
the darkness to IsmaTlIa-not waiting for the morn
ing in his dstrust Of the chances of getting there at
| all if he wait. l don't know what has become OF
| Gen. Banks on his Russian corvette. hope hols
likely to get on. There not many people IN Port
| Said for whom one can have even much good Will
as that.
| ENTERING THE CANAL-A SENSATION.
We are under way in the P6luse at % at
10 we enter the canal-tle ninth ship in the line.
Todays sole celebration is TO be the passage OF the
shipS-sO many as pass-from Port Said to lSnai-
liza. There were to DO 20; there viii be-who knows
| how manyi
declare to you that the entering into the canal is
a sensation for q lifetime. In itself it is simple
matter-what could be simpler than the mere passing
of line of ships through canal Yes, but this is
| the canal This is the realization Of the dreams OF
! thirty-six centuries We crossing the track or
| innumerabe armies. We are accomplishing prob
| lem long believed insoluble. We have witnessed
only Yesterday f6te which contradics every tradi-
ton of the East. We are the eveofan event which
is to revolutionze the commerce of the world Well,
| how do we meet such mOmentf For the hrst
moments in dazed, wondering, half incredulous
silence Great events break slowly on the mind No
voyager entering with adventurous keel on unknown
seas has more thrilling sensation of novelty OF the
unforeseen, than we. Experimental ships have gone
before us; our going is a triumphal progress. as we
hope proof to the world that the Suez Canal is no
| longer problem.
At the entrance rise two red obelisks; by means
| of POmpey or CeOpatra-nothing 50 old, so venera-
bic as they Commerce, IN its practical way, builds
over two obelisks of pine boards and canvas paints
them red and sets them at the mouth of the Canal,
solely for the guidance Of ships that mean to enter
therein.
| sALUTrNG THE oBEIsKs-LAKE AND DESERT
We salute the obelisks not for what they are, but
| for what they mean. don't know what cheers went
ringing out from the deck of the Aige. hope they
were resonant and sincere. From the deck OF the
| P6use can answer they WERE We swung our hats
into the air; the few AnglOSaxons among us cheered
! as Ambassadors know how to cheer; the French
men did what they could in that way. Among the
least religious there sprung up suddenly kind Of
| religious sentiment, or what might pass for such.
| Pent-up enthusiasm broke loose. We had waited
hours we had been listening to all sorts Of TuInOrs,
we had almost doubted, and now there was room for
| no doubt The keel of our ship had entered the
desert. This century has known great enterprises,
but the Suez Canal is unique, and the most thought
less becomes thoughtful he with his own eyes
the long pathway of water dividing the desert, and
finds the problem that has banled thirtysx centuries
solved at last in the nineteenth after Christ.
If the 'splendors of Port Said yesterday were
theatrical and imported, the spectacle of to-day Is
genuine ana oriental. 10 llEut bpltdu5 l~AAO
| Menzaleh reaching all the way to the horizon
desoate waste of water. To the left more desoate
waste of sand ending in the ocean that we leave
behind us soon it becomes water both sides with
strips of sand rising of it here aud there As far
as one can see the canal goes straight an arrow
through the lake-so straight that the masts o. the
eight ships before the masts OF one. We steam
slowly not more than six miles an hour, for one OF
the anticipated difficulties of the canal is the erosion
| of the banks by the waves and wash Of the ships,
and we 90 feeling our way as cautiously
as if the canal were some delicate fabric that would
not bear rough handling But there is no wave. The
ships ahead leave trace OF theipassage the waters
closing after them and the banks marked by scarce
" ripple. Between every two ships the interval IS
one kilometre-fve-eghths of a mile-at starting
but before long becomes reduced, and were come at
times in pretty close order.
| Each successive ship had taken so much time in
getting out Of its berth and under way that
| the Aigle aud her consort were far ahead when we
entered already involved in the desert far south Of
Port Said. All the more the sense of solitude i'm
pressed itself on u.s. the feeling that passage into
this silent space was intrusion, which the genius
of the pace-and the genius Of the deserts power
full fellow-mght at any moment resent. But wo
steamed on.
THE LAKE CANAL-FIAMINGoEs.
AS the lake lncOseS us ON DOM slues inost shgu-
lar feature of the canal strikes us. Not only tho
channel but the banks carried through the lake.
There are the low ridges Of sand on either side of
Just as if they the edges of the land, but there
is no land. had supposed that in the lake chan
mel had been merely deepened and was marked with
buoys. Elsewhere this has been done, but here it
was found impossible. The mud at the bottom was
SO LIQUID that the excavation filled fast as it
could be made and for time the engineers despaired
At last they hit on the idea of heapng up the banks