The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-04-28

A Magnificent scheme-The Formation
OF New sea I'm Western Asia.
The triumphs of human genius and in.
dustry in the peaceful contest with natures
obstructiveness to mans dominion over
material things have ever proved the
browning glory Of nations by perpetual
ing their fame after every other trace Of
their existence has disappeared. Already the
successful completion of the Suez Caual is
influencing the political and social con-
dition of the civilized world, and the
union of the waters of the Red Sea
and the Mediterranean is cementing and
dissolving alliances and sapping the founda-
tons of more than one European throne.
The Mont Cents tunnel, once regarded Al
an impossibility, now forms closer bond
between two peoples than oil the treaties
that were ever inscribed on parchment, and
busy brains are engaged in planning sub
marine line of communication between Eng
land and France, undismayed by the difh-
culties that will attend such stupendous
undertaking. In our own country immense
duced by schemes for the fertilization and
development of commerce and manufac-
lures. The Erie Canal has made New York
what she is to-day-the commercial metrop-
oils of the North American continent. The
Pacific railroads tie the East to the West, as
the Mississippi ties the North to the South,
for the building of the former and the inn
provement of the latter are calculated to
develop an immense area of territory hith-
erto unoocupied and fill it with busy cities
and blooming fields Then, again, we look
at the speedy attainment of navigable line
of interoceanic communication across the
Isthmus as o necessity to our progress and
the promotion of our commercial interests
in the Pacific. All these grand undertake
ings, either already accomplished or to be
SO within q reasonable time, will enable MS
to contemplate intelligently and set the
proper value on the magnificent scheme re-
Gently proposed to the Russian govern
ment by an eminent American engineer,
Mr. Spalding, and which bids fair to
eclipse oil others in the magnitude
and importance of its results. 1t is nothing
less than the restoration of the arid plains
and valleys that surround the Caspian and
Sea of Aral, in Western Asia, to their origi-
nal condition as the bed of vast inland
sea, and the rehabilitation of the barren
steppes of Russia by the healing moisture
that will fill the air, over what is now a
waste, bare of vegetation and unfit for occu-
patton by man. This can be accomplished
by cutting canal from the Black Sea east
ward, toward the Caspian, which is nearly
two hundred feet below the former in level.
The undertaking would be similar in many
respects to that of the Suez Canal, but, owing
to the great fall inland, the work Of ex-
cavation would be largely performed by the
inrushing waters through the narrow cut
first made for their admission. The glory
of this great conception, in all its details,
belongs to one Of our own countrymen, and
there can be but little doubt as to the FEAST
bility of forming great Asiatic sea by the
proposed plan, on the waters of which ma
vies could. in the future, exercise the same
influence they now possess on the Mediter-
ranean.