Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-08-31
PORT SAID.

IOINA oAADs
Port said is distant by sea from Alex
andria about one hundred and forty
miles. The port is purely the recent
creation of human ingenuity and labor;
and the town which has sprung up be-
hind it, though numbering now at least
ten thousand inhabitants, is not less
the creation of the port. AS M. le
Mason, the French engineer, observed,
it is a port "cOntre nature" At this
Mediterranean extremity of the canal,
indeed, the prospect might well have
daunted the heart of the most cour-
ageous of projectors. The problem
was to get depth upon com mparatively
shallow, sandy coast; and this was
practically attained by commencing
the work on sand bank twenty-six
miles from the mainland This long
bank or belt Of sand, extending from
the mouth of the Damietta branch of
the Nile to the Gulf of Pelusium, is
described in Mr.. Wyld's map as being
Of fine gray sand, five feet only above
low water mark, and varying from 100
70 164 yards in length. Behind this
irregular barrier is the shallow lake of
Merzaleh, through which it was, Of
course, necessary to make an artificial
channel for the canal. The first thing
to be accomplished, however, was to
construct the foundations for the future
town to be named after the then
Viceroy, and then to project into the
sea the two enormous breakwaters or
moles which form the outer port and
protect it against that constant tend
ency to the accumulation of sand,
which, even as it is, demands constant
dredging. The spot chosen on the
sand bank or strip of what is locally
known as "slob," is described as little
more than five hundred feet wide.
The plan of the engineers was sim
pie. At first a light framing of piles
was run out, on which a crane and
trucks laden with loose stones travelled,
and in short time fairly substantial
pier that served as landing stage for
materials and machinery was construct
ed. Here was, in fact, the great work
Of the undertaking throughout the ten
years of It's construction. Encouraged
by this success (says Mr.. Fitzgerald) a
bolder work was ventured on. Out in
they bay, at nearly mile distant, huge
piles were screwed into the sands, and
an oblong island vas then formed with
stones, the space between this island
and the wooden shore pier being gradu-
ally filled in. Every day the piles settled
firmly in their places in spite of the
storms of the bay. This temporary
structure was carried out to distance
of abouut three hundred feet, and it
was not till three years before the canal
was complete and ready for opening
that the work was seriously resumed
and the breakwater joined to tho pier.
Two officers employed by the British
government to examine the port de-
scribe it as formed by two rough, mar
row and low breakwaters, enclosing an
area of some four hundred and fifty
acres, with an average depth of only
thirteen Or fourteen feet Of water,
except in the ship channel (about three
hundred feet wide) leading to the inner
basins, where the depth IS from twenty
five to twenty-eight feet. The western
breakwater, which extends for 6,94
feet at right angles to the shore
and is slightly curved to the eastward
toward its extremity, was commenced
IL 1860, and carried out about l, 300
feet; beyond which point and at a short
distance from it was deposited hear
of stones that was surrounded by irO L
piles, and from its detached position
was called "the island" The work was
then left untouched till 1866, when th<