The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-03-21
by THE WATERS OF sUEZ.

BY THE WATERS OF sUEZ.
Port Said and the Great CanaI.-In the
Land of Goshen.-scenes in NueZ.-|
Down by the Sea.-The Story of Israel's
Crossing,
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
SUEz. Egypt.-Not unlike the broad
road of an unnamed country, which,
gradually narrowing itself to footpath.
finally became a squirrels track and ran
up tree, is the continental waterway to
the east. The wide sweep of the Medi-
terranean soon loses itself in the sand
banks of the Egyptian peninsula, and
the ship that wrestled with the waves of
the ocean, at last goes sailing on the
waters of great ditch, wondering if the
squirrels hole Is at the other end,
The long ietlies, that reach out into
the sea a mile or more to hold the sands
which drift with the currents, form a
harhor at the entrance of the canal, am
pie for anchorage. OF the many vessels
entering this portal each is required to
take on a pilot. and submit to tonnage
measurement for the assessment of canal
tolls, before passing through. Some de-
lay is likely to occur, which is due more
to the fact that the vessels must needs
file through singly than to the misman-
agement of the French officials that is so
often preferred against them. The dues
are something like ten francs, or about
two dollars a ton, amounting to good
round sum for a large steamer.
Port s lid. that guards the northern
entrance of the canal and collects her
fees from the worlds traffic, is town
of considerable population, With wide
and regular streets. and with some sub
stantIal buildings, it has modern ap'
pearance. During the building of the
canal, from which its origin dates, it was
made the base of supplies, and suddenly
became both populOus and inlquitous.
Il has lost a portion of its people but the
evils of those days still cling to its skirts.
1t is a den of vice. and all forms Of in.
'quity and debauehery have full swing
in the cafes and dives that line the
streets, The morality OF the place is low,
as might be inferred from its origin and
the wide range of races that make up its
pc Iple, which seems TO be lha scum OF
all lands. As place of residence it is
not to be thought of, and IN its harbor
steamers make as short stop as possi-
BILE.
The great canal, bearing the name tf
the isthmus that i: traverses, is lasting
monument 10 the memory of its engineer,
De Lesseps, even though his Panama
prrllct has proven failure. The idea
of building the canal was not original
wi h him. II was an old notion, that
had been planned and pondered long be-
fore his time, for which surveys of the
country had more than once been made,
Even six hundred years before our era
canal was actually in existence, some
what different in route, connecting the
Nile with the Red Sea, not to mention
the fictitious passage-way constructed
by Jules Verne for that wonderful Nau
titus of his. At intervals along the low
er part of the present canal, portions of
the old structure may be seen today,
partially covered with the shifting sands.
The country through which ike canal
passes, for the most part is Hat and
sandy. hat broken in the interior
by a range of low hills. The width Of the
isthmus at this point from sea to sea is
eighty oight miles, By utilizing some
small lakes on the route, the actual
length of the canal ia made about twenty
miles less. With sloping sides it has a
width of seventy two feet at the bottom,
and contains depth of water of twenty
six feet. At one point the embankmen
is nearly one hundred feet high with a
summit width of five hundred feet, vary
ing in slope with the nature OF the soil.
The opening of this trans-isthmian
waterway, twenty years ago, has revo-
lutionized the carrying business of the
east. The fast tea clippers of whose
racing and perilOus passages from China
exciting stories have often been told, are
things of the past. The freight rates,
that were paid to the fleetest of the clip
pers, were out of all proportion to pres
ent transportation charges, but were re-
turned with interest to the shippers who
succeeding in getting the first cargoes of
the new tea crop into European markets.
The route was by the way of the Cape OF
Good Hope, and the passage from Can.
ton to London was rarely ever made in
less than hundred days, a period of
time now reduced by steamships through
the Suez canal to thirty-five days. dur
ing which the teas are not supposed 10
become old.
Owing to the prevalence of untavora-
Bile winds on the Red Sea, which seem
to blow constantly toward the cent r
forming head winds at least half the
way to Babel Mandeb, the canal is una
vailable to sailing vessels, which are still
relegated to the old route. In the tea
trade the opening of our canal drove
most of the ships out OF the business,
and gave an impulse to steam traffic, as
the discovery of the Good Hope route
led to the decline of the slow overland
transportation in caravans, which pre-.
vailed for centuries. The steamers are
now urged over the shorter course with
all speed possible. stopping but once or
twice for coal, and enable the occidental
tea-drinkers to get ttei new beverage a
couple of months earlier.
AS soon as possible the JUniata fell in
line at Port Said with long procession
of steamers, and entered the canal. The
tide was not particularly refreshing, and
was quite devoid of excitement. We
we're three days in passing through,
having been delayed by the grounding
of steamer somewhere on the way.
which brought twenty-five vessels to a
stand-still in the broiling sun and heat of
the desert. The view along the entire
course of the canal is that of a solitary
waste, a rolling sea of sand. Provision
is made for the meeting of vessels NOV
ing in opposite directions, by widening
the channel at intervals of five miles, to
allow sufficient room for a steamer TO
lstor.
At Suez our ship emerged from the
narrow limits of the canal into com
Portable harbor. The town, which marks
the southern terminus, is mere jumb-
ling of mud huts and poor buildings,
and contains a population of 15, 900, Il
lazy INDECENT people. OF whom but few
are Europeans. 1t is dirty place, with
narrow streets apd many denominations
lying on the borders of the desert, and
is surrounded by a wall except on the
side toward the sea. No rain falls in this
region, in which hot and ard climate
prevails. The supply of fresh water
comes from the Nile by an aqueGuct
which has been in operation several
years, previous to which all the water
o5tainable was brought on the blcks Of
camels from the ancient and distant
wells, a fact that shows itself among the
natives in the mesger uses to which it is
| mt after their long acquired habits of