Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-10
IstInlian Canals.

Our is an age of great achieve
ments, and in nothing is this more
m anifest than in the work of M. de
Lesseps. This truly typical man OF
the age will leave his impress on the
time more than will kings and con-
querors. He has cut the Suez canal,
and he is at work at the Panama en-
terprise. Whether he ever lives to
see it complete or not, completed it
will be by some one, and at period
not far off.
During the days of the infancy Of
commerce, the great boats which
carried grain from the mouth of the
Nile to the port of Brundursium, in
the south OF Italy, or to Ostia, which
W as the port to the city of Rome; in
order to avoid crossing the Mediter-
anean, were hauled bodily across the
Isthmus OF Cornith. This was the
Isthmlan problem id the embryo.
Ours is the matter liz lie full flower
and fruit of the modern world with
a II its gigantic schemes, which have
widened with the widening ofthe globe
since the days of Columbus.
Now come the twin projects OF
cutting great ship canals across the
south of France from Bordeaux on the
Atlantic to Narbonne on the Mediter-
r anean, and one from the Leyant to In
dia, by way of the Dead Sea and the
Red Sea- Should such scheme be
carried out, great steamers would sail
across France, by the southern capes
of Italy to.fhe extreme eastern end
of the Mediterranean, thence by the
Dead Sea and Red Sea to Calcutta.
He We're bold prophet to predict
the day or hour when the first steam
er shall pass along this route. He
were less wise one who would say
this is not to be done; or who will
say it is not to be an achievement OF
the near future. OF lesser schemes
is the project to cut Cape Cod near
the base, SO as 10 shorten the jour
ney between New York and Boston,
and thence to Europe. Also, there
is plan to run ship canal across
the Jutland Peninsula from the
North Sea into the Baltic.
The canal across Western Asia
contemplates the creation OF an in
land sea in, Syria of gigantic size.
And this calls to mind the similar
project of flooding the whole, or part,
of the great Desert of Sahara, in
Northern Africa by means of a
canal from the Mediterranean, near
Tunis. Here seems to be the limit
of mans power. The Hebrew scrip
lures represent Jehovah as saying to
the sea: Hitherto shalt thou come,
and no further, and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed" Every
schoolboy has read of the Danish
conqueror of England, who attempt
ed to play the role Of omnpotence in
ordering the tide to recede; and the
schoolboy knows the result of this
regal temerity. These echoes from
past ages indicate a natural law.
Neptune is supreme over the hoary
waste of his watery empire, and re-
sents with mighty resentment all
efforts of man to interfere with his
realm or its ways.
A project was broached to fill
the great desert in California lying
west of the Colorado river, some
years ago. Governor Stoneman took
= few leizure hours to figure out how
large a volume of water might be di-
verted from the Gulf of California,
and If we remember right, it was his
opinion that evaporation would dry
up the desert faster than the water
could be diverted to fill it.
As to taking the water of the Medi-
terranean to fill up the Sahara, it most