Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-07-26
THE SUEZ CANAL.
History of the Waterway Be
tween the Mediterranean
and Red Seas.
The great waterway between the

The great waterway between the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea,
owing to the war in Egypt, has of
late again been brought prominently
before the public A short sketch of
its history will, therefore, not be with
out interest at the present moment.
In almost prehistoric times, the
eastern branch of the Nile and the
Red Sea were united by a canal,
made under Necho and Ptolemy
Philadelphus. Traces of it are still
visable, but it is not known when it
ceased to be a navigable communica-
ton,
In modern times Napoleon l., dur
ing his sojourn in Egypt, conceived the
idea to reopen the canal between
Cairo and Suez, and instructed the
engineer, Lepere, to study the ques
ton. Lepere found difference Of
thirty feet in the level of the two
seas, and although his measurements
turned out wrong afterward, the plan
was abandoned.
In 1910, NJ Linant de Bellefands;
in 1916, Efantin; in l847, M. Talabot
and NJ Barrault again proposed
piercing the isthmus, but could not
find anyone to listen to their projects
1t was in December 1854, that NJ.
de Lesseps first explored the desert
along the isthmus and found the es-
tablishment of canal feasible. To
his indomitable energy it is due that
the works were commenced in 1860,
and the new waterway opened for
traffic nine years later During this
time the harbor of Port Said, on the
Mediterranean end, was constructed
between two jetties of two and three
thousand yards in length respectively.
At Suez the Red Sea was sufficiently
protected from adverse winds to dis
pense with jetties and to inclose the
canal between two quays.
This supply of fresh water was OF
the utmost Importance when more
than twenty thousand laborers were
employed in the construction of the
canal, aud is still necessary of life
for the towns of Port Said, Ismailia
and Suez, as we'll as for the engineer
ing staff which keeps the canal in re-
pair and for the convenience of the
shipping, considering that supply OF
drinking water from wells can be OBJ
tanned at one or two places only.
The tract of low-lying land con-
Meeting Africa with Asia extends
about seventy miles from north to
south, and is composed of shell lime
stone rocks mixed with stratas of
silicious limestone, and partly covered
with sand or salt marshes. The
deepest cuttings had to be made near
El Guisre, near Serapeum and Chalouf.
Evan distant from Port Said and Suez
a new town, Ismalia, was built on the
shores of Lake Timsah, to protect the
outlet of second canal, which carries
the fresh water supply from the Nile,
near Cairo, to the isthmus, distribu-
ting the same in two branches to Suez
and Port Said.
England, who at first opposed the
construction of the canal, has since be-
come fully alive to its political and
commercial value as the shortest route
to India, the distance between Bombay
and London haying been reduced
compared with the route round the
Cape-by about seven thousand miles.
The number of vessels, the greatest
part English, rose from l All in 1878
to 1927 in 1881. 1t is therefore a
matter of grave anxiety whether the
safety of the passage can be depended
upon in crisis like the present one.