The Phoenix herald., 1879-06-14
Making Geography to Order.

In @ paper in Sc'ibner for June, giv- ing the history and romance of the pro-
 jects for 't Piercing the American 18th
 mus, Mir. O. O. Buel writes as follows
 of the great schemes for modifying the
 Statu guo of nature in different parts of
 the globe
 Within few years the science of
 making geography to order has been re-
 markedly developed. Holland almost
 set the fashion by giving Haarlem Lake
 up to agriculture, and since then has constructed a ship canal, under great engineering difficulties, from Amster-
 dam Harbor direct to the German Ocean, making the Dutch metropolis
 Independent of the circuitous and diff
 ficult course through the Zuyder Zee.
 De Lesseps comes next with his Suez
 Canal, triumphantly completed in the
 face of political opposition and in de-
 iance of obstacles before regarded as
 practically insurmountable. Most i'm
 portant of all for the Darien project,
 the Suez Canal has proven remarkable
 financial success, though 1t cost ninety
 nine millions, about twice the amount
 first estimated. After it was opened in
 1859, shares whose par value was 800 francs, dropped to between POO and 300
 francs, while ten years afterward they are quoted between 700 and 500 francs.
 This canal shortens the voyage from England to India by 5000 miles, yet
 the fact that British Oriental trade has
 been injured by 1t to the advantage of the great commercial cities of the Med iterranean testifies to the foresight of Lord Palmerston when he opposed its construction. The Darien project, on the contrary, met with his approval, and to-day appears to be the only expedient which would enable England to com pete with France, Italy, Austria and Constantinople for the future Oriental trade of Northern Europe. The Mont Cenis and Hoosac tunnels demonstrate that man may safely drill his way through the rocky foundations of great mountain chains, and to this conclusion, the St. Gothard tunnel, moving with un- expected rapidity to completion, adds confirmation. Tunnels are soberly being planned to pierce the Alps under the Simplon Pass, and to admit railway under the English Channel. De Les seps is maturing his scheme for flooding the Saharan desert, confident thata vast inland sea once existed there and that 1t can be restored by cutting a canal through the sand-barrier of the coast, LII uc auu1AS 1OI Ii1AbJ aHu iuGSIud1 WdJeI communication to the French posses sions in Africa. General Turr, presi- dent of the SOciete CtUize Internationale du CanaE InteroceaniQue par PIsthme du Darten-which holds concession of rights in the Darien Isthmus for canal purposes, and expects to be the nucleus of new construction company-is also interested in a project to connect the Adriatic and the Danube by a canal of ordinary capacity. The advisability has also been considered of ship canal across the Malayan peninsula-the long narrow finger of land extending south from Siam to the Straits of Malacca Such canal, connecting the Bay of Bengal with the Gulf of Siam, would subtract l 1,175 miles from the voyage between India and China. With this and the Darien project successfully ex- ecuted, voyage around the world could be made, also Uia Suez, without cross ing to the south of the equator, keeping, at the same time, between the eighth and thirty seventh parallels.