Connecticut western news., 1889-08-14
THE BIG SUEZ CANAL.
AN ARTIFICIAL RIVER IN THE
 MIDST OF A DRY DESERT.
Enormous Profits from This Water
 Highway.

The abandonment of the Panama Canal and the discussion of matters relating to M. de Lesseps has brought me from Cairo to Ismailia.
 It is tifty-eight years since he first came to Egypt, in the French consular service, and it is more than a genera ion ago since he persuaded the Vice. roy of the country that the work could be done. Now more than two-thirds of the ships which pass through the canal belong to Great Britain, and the English, in order to protect their in terest in India, have had to put some- thing like S17 ,00O,000 into canal shares. It is not bad investment, for in 1885 the net profits of this canal were more than S6,000, ,0U0, and after all expenses were paid the sharehold- CTS received dividend of 17 per cent.
 In 1886 more than 5000 vessels passed through the canal, and estimat- to India, Australia or China made saving of at least five thousand miles, it will be seen that the aggregate saving in one year was more than fifteen million miles, equal to distance of six hundred times around the world. I have not the statistics of the number of passengers carried in 1886, but ten years before that when the ships which passed through the canal were less than half the number that now go through, the passengers carried numbered more than eighty y-three-thousand Undoubtedly orI and passengers are taken through this canal every year, and the charges are S2 on each passenger. It makes heavy charges upon the vessels which pass through, estimating them according to their tonnage, and the receipts of the canal make it one of the best paying institutions of the world.
 And still this canal is only one hun dred miles long; it is only one-twelfth the length of the Red Sea, into which it conducts the waters of the Mediter- ranean, and these two bodies of water are of nearly the same level. They now flow into one another without locks, and the canal is well described as ditch of the desert. This ditch is about three hundred feet wide at the bottom, and the water within it is as quiet as mill pond. It is of beauti- full sea-green and the contrast of this color with the bare yellow sands which line the banks of the canal makes it wonderfully beautiful. The canal is so narrow that ships can pass only at certain points, and the management govern these passages just as the train despatchers regulate the passage of trains upon our trunk lines. There are, from time, to time, through the canal wider spaces where the ships must turn in while others, which have the right of way, may pass them, and at distance these ships seem to be walking, as it were, in single file through the desert. They are not al- lowed to go over five miles an hour, and this is largely due to the depth of the canal. Its average depth is about twcnty-four feet, and many of the ships which pass through are more than twenty feet deep in the water. There is so little water under the bot toms that there can be no great speed.
 The banks of this canal are of dry and thirsty sand. In some places they are kept back by pavements of stone and in others by Q network of twigs like the jetties of the Mississippi. It cost neaIly $1O0, ,00O, ,00O to build the canal, and in some places the channel had to be cut through solid rocks. In others there was little dredging needed. The waters of the Mediterranean flowed into long natural lakes, and these required but little excavation to make them deep enough for the tram sit of the ships. One of the great problems in making the canal was fresh water for the workmen. The work was begun in 1858, and the ruler of Egypt provided ,OOO laborers. These were relieved every three months; but it was necessary to feed them. It took 4,OO0 water-casks, which were carried on the backs of camels, to supply them with drinking water, and this was kept up for five years. The work of preparing harbors at Port Said and Suez was very expen- sive, and took look at the piers at Port Said, which are intended to ward off the accumulations of sand and mud. and which form the navigable entrance to the canal. These piers are made of artificial stone, composed of desert sand and cement. The machinery to make them was brought here from France and the stones were made to throw into the sea. Each stone weighed twenty tons, and it took 25 ,OO0 of these massive rocks to form the bases of these piers.
 Immense dredges are now employed throughout the canal. These pump up the sand, which blows in from the desert, and throw it out beyond the banks. There are stations or guard houses at intervals along the course and a few small towns have grown up here and there.