The record-union., 1898-07-09
THE SUEZ CANAL.

ing up and down the Suez Canal, the
reports leaving us in much doubt whe-
'ther the gloomy commander is march
ing up hill or down, a great deal of in
terest is manifest to know something
I in detail concerning this famous water
way The story of its history is not
an uninteresting one. The present ca
nal was completed in 1869, but as early
as 1900 B. c., we are told by Strabo
and Pliny, a canal was cut between a
branch of the Nile and the Red Sea,
but this was used only for the purpose
of conveying water.
According to- Herodotus, 600 years B.
C., along the same route canal was
projected ON which ships of the time
We're to successfully ride. The work
was commenced and was completed as
far as the Lower Bitter Lakes. This
canal was about thirty-seven miles
long. About 270 B. c. Ptolemy Phila
delphus extended the canal to the sea
and erected locks to make the connec-
tion complete. 1t was then 90 miles
long, 150 feet wide and from 10 to 30
feet deep. Before Trajan's time it was
obstructed by drifting sands and went
out OF use. but was by him restored
at the beginning of the second century
with, a. change in its route. Trajan be-
gan his work at Babylon opposite
.Clysma- This canal fell into decay and
so remained until the conquest of
Egypt, 63S64O, when Anru, the Arab
General. restored it. 1t was used for a
hundred years and was finally de-
stroyed by Caliph Al-Mansour in 761.
Napoleon I. was the first to call at
tention to the feasibility of a canal
across the isthmus of Suez. He had a
survey made which showed the level of
the Red Sea to be thirty feet above
that of the Mediterranean. an error
which was not discovered until 1910. In
1917. France, England and Austria
commissioned officers to make a new
survey, which was done, and the report
was that the levels of the two seas bar
ometrically taken, We're about the same
A survey made in 1853 showed the
mean levels to be exactly the same.
In 1854 Egypt granted Ferdinand De
Lesseps, of the French diplomatic serv-
ice in Egypt, the right TO construc a
canal across the isthmus, and se
formed company for that purpose.
He proposed TO carry the canal through
the isthmian chain of lakes instead of
alongside of them as in other schemes
. In 1858 the De Lesseps Company was
formed and guaranteed the right of
way for ninetynine years, the Egyptian
Government in consideration to receive
Is per cent. of the tolls.
The first work involved the cutting
Of a broad water way from Port Said
TO Suez without locks, and secondly, the
construction of a fresh water canal to
supply the workmen with water, but
this work in point of necessity was Of
course primary. The great canal was
successfully completed, after more or
less of encouragement and a great deal
of diplomatic wrangling among the
Powers as to their rights in the prem
ises and the terms for the use Of the
water way.
The canal begins at Port Said and
ends at Suez, Its length is 1O112 miles,
Of which 16 Ito are actual canal and
the remainder lakes, a portion Of which
had TO be excavated along the line of
channel to secure sufficient depth. Ex-
;+ ~
the canal originally was 325 feet in
width at the surface and ~ feet at the
bottom, and it's depth receives a ship
drawing 20 feet of water. In the high
ground the width is 195 feet with
slopes of 2 TO 1. at El-Guisr, a few
. miles north of Lake Timsah, for eleven
and half miles the highest ground is
encountered, and there the excavation
varies from 80 to So feet In depth.
AT Port Said a basin was excavated
SO yards square with two jetties ex-
tending into the sea for protection from
storms. The channel between these is
dredged and kept to a depth of 26 feet.
At Suez the harbor is dredged to the
same depth and protected by break
water.
The canal was officially opened No
vember II, 1869, on that occasion fifty
ships safely passing between the Med
iterranean to the Red Sea. Since then
the passage of the canal has been con-
stant and unobstructed and the great
scheme of De Lesseps has proved one
of the most substantial blessings to
commerce and the great States of the
world having navies. The canal, orig
inally French in ownership, has now
passed largely under English control,
and four-ffths of the shipping passing
through it is English, a fact the more
interesting from the early opposition
of the English to the water way out of
fear that 1t would hurt the India trade.
In 1856 plans for widening the canal
were made and entered upon shortly
after, and have been prosecuted to
completion. The canal will admit
steamers of 45O feet length and 80 feet
beam and the time of passage has been
reduced by broadening the canal from
60 hours to 10 hours 53 minutes for
average transit.
The present political character of the
canal is established by the Woolf con-
ventaon Of 1883. to which the Powers