Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-21
A DifCh in The DESERT,
The Great Suez Canal and Its Inn
mense Profits.
CUT THROUGH BURNING SANDS.
Difficulties Surmounted by De Les
seps in Providing the World
With This Wonder
full Waterway.
The Suez Canal.

TO M. De Lesseps has brought ME from CAIRO
TO Ismailia. / write here in the very center
OF the Sy q canal, where the grand opening
cercmor Is of 1869 were held. and where this
man w has temporarily failed had the
crown ng success Of his life. lie has q mag
nincent home hereto which he comes during
some Of his winters. 1t is surrounded by or
ange groves and palm trees, and tho pure
breezes Of the desert are mixed with the
winds which blow down from tho Mediter-
ranean through tho camel which he built. 1t
is fifty.eight years since he first came to
Egypt, in tho French consular service, aud
1t Is more than a generation ago since he pur-
suaded the viceroy of the country that the
work could be done. When he begun it the
English laughed at him., and scientists all
over the world predicted his failure. John
Bull shook his tail and said, with n asneer,
that France and Egypt were puryipg their
money in the sands of the desert, and it was
not until the waters of the Mediterranean
were mixed with those of the Red sea, that
they would admit that the thing could be
done. Now more than
Two-TnrtDs OF THE SHIPS.
which pass through the canal belong to Great
Britain, and the English, in order to protect
their interests in India, have had to put
some ST., 600, coo into canal shares. 1t is not
a bad investment, for In 1885 the net profits
of this canal were more than $1,000, COO, and
after all expenses were paid the sharehold-
ers received a dividend of II per cent.
The canal increases In Importance year
after year and that to such an extent, that 1t
may be necessary to build n second along side
of the first and this plan is much discussed.
How much Is saved by IL can only be under
-.e-l H., znn - 81, 70 Il N q nr,c IN ,Nrtne -
the past. Before 1t was opened, ships in
going to China and India had TO go by way
Of the Cape of Good Hope and it was
then more than twelve thousand miles from
London to Bombay. The voyage was one of
months instead of weeks, and 1t necessitated
the repeated coaling of steamers At pres
ent the distance by the Suez canal is only
1000 miles and the saving in distance from
London to Hong Kong is about four thousand
miles or a thousand miles longer than the
distance between Liverpool and New York.
In 1856, more than three thousand vessels
passed through the canal. and estimating
that each Of these vessels to India, Aus
tralia or China, made a saving of ut least
five thousand miles, it will be seen that the
aggregate saving in one year was
MORE THAN FIFTEEN MILLION MILES.
Cuuul W - a Va opN pAhiSo uAouiiu ehS
world. / have not the statistics of the num-
Der 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 pas
sengers carried numbered more than eighty
three thousand. Undoubtedly more than
one hundred and fifty thousand passengers
are taken through this canal every year and
tbo cborpac ora so IN aarb pnSeappar IT,
makes heavy charges upon the vessels which
pass through, estimating them according to
their tonnage, and the receipts Of tho canal
make it one of the best paying institutions Of
the world.
And still this canal is only 100 miles long,
1t is only one-twelfth the length Of the Red
sea, into which it conducts the waters of the
Mediterranean, and these two bodies Of
water are nearly the same level. They now
flow into one another without locks and tho
canal is we'll described Us a ditch IN the
desert. This ditch is about three hundred
feet wide NJ the top and $50 feet wide at
the bottom, and the water within it is as
Quiet Us q mill pond. 1t is of beautiful sea
green and the contrast of this color with the
bare yellow sands which limo the banks Of
the canal, makes 1t wonderfully beautiful.
hO ONO 10 ~ sh"S SN'pS SsAA boos
only at certain points and the management
govern these passages Just as the train dis
patchers 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 a distance
THESE SHIPS SEEMS TO DE WALKING,
a., a ,.,ara In pfnnln NIa shnOt,nh thn Inunrt
They are not allowed to go over five miles
an hour and this is largely due to the depth
of tho canal. It's average depth is about
twenty-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 bottoms that there can be
no great speed.
thirsty sand. In som places they are kept
back by of stone and in others by
q net work OF twigs like the i%etties of the
Mississippi. 1t cost nearly one hundred
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 transit of
the ships. One of the great problems In
making the canal was fresh water for the
%.workmen. The work was begun in 1858, ana
the ruler of Egypt provided
TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND LABoRERs.
These were relieved every three months,
but II was necessary to feed them. IL took
four thousand water casks, which were car
RED on the backs Of camels, to supply them
with drinking water. and this was kept up
for five years. At the end of that time a
fresh water canal was arranged 30 that
water was carried from the Nile to ismailia,
and there is now q pipe which runs the
whole length of the canal ana which
carries fresh water from one end OF
II to the other. The work Of pre-
PAL ing harbors at Port Said and Suez
was very expensive, and 1 took n look ut the
piers at Port Said, which are intended TO
ward off the accumulatiops 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 brough,
here from France, and the stones were made
TO throw into the sea. Each stone weighed
twenty tons, aud IL took 25, 900 of these mas
sive rocks TO form the bases Of these piers.
On the top OF this foundation the piers were
built, and this artificial stone will, | am told
last as long as the natural article.
immense dredges are now employed
throughout the canal. These pump up the
sand, which blows in from the desert, and
throw il out beyond the banks. There are
stations or guard houses at intervals along
the course, and a few small towns have
grown up here ana there. AT one Of these
q dirty Arab brought u leg of raw mutton
while the boat was stODping during q tril