The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-13
CUTTING THE WORLD UP WITH CANALS
Digging a Big Ditch That Will
Rival Panan7a'S.

is that motor barges could come from
France and the Channel Islands
through this canal right up to Lon
don, bringing vast quantities of mar
ket produce and other merchandise.
There is another scheme to connect
the Midway and the Thames by a ca
nal estimated to cost one and a half
millions of dollars.
Belgium is adding to it's fine system
of canals by the building of the
Bruges ship canal, which will connect
the great city of Bruges with the port
of Heyst The total cost is esti-
mated at nearly 100000 francs, of
which sum 25,0O0,O00 francs comes
from the state.
Prussia's Great scheme.
Prussia has a great canalizing
scheme from the Rhine to the Elbe,
but as yet it is in embryo. The only
part of it completed is the Dortmund-
Ems canal, 16S miles long.
Russia has some great canal
schemes, but as yet they are merely
schemes, and the terrible cost of the
war with Japan is likely to postpone
their execution for many years to
come.
The greatest of these schemes is
for canal right through European
Russia, to connect the Black sea with
the Baltic, and to be capable of ac-
commodating the largest modern bat
tleships. OF course. the canal would
not have to be dug for the whole of
this tremendous distance, as naVigable
rivers and other existing waterways
would be linked up. The Russian
Ministry of the Interior announced
some time ago that 1.-The construction
of the waterway for large vessels of
hn III
at present" But while the cost of
the war has first to be met, it may
be expected that Russia will under
take this work as soon as possible.
Her naval strength would be i'm
mensely increased by canal that
would enable her to transfer her Black
sea fleet to the Baltic, and vice versa.
The war has shown mostly plainly the
undesirability to having naval forces
dispersed.
Russia also has scheme to con-
meet Rostoff on the Danube with the
Sea of Azoff by "a deep water canal
capable of accommodating ocean
steamships. 1t has been approved by
Prince Khilkoff, Russian Minister of
Ways and Communications. but it
will probably be also held up by the
war
Few of the Worlds Projects.
These are only a few of the canal
projects in various parts of the world
to-day, but they suffice to show that
the railway has not put the canal out
OF business, and is never likely to do
so.
The Dominion of Canada is fortunate
in the matter of canals. 1t has a sys-
tenn of canal, river and lake navigation
over 2.7OO miles in length, and vessels
from the lake ports reach the Atlantic
without breaking bulk. Up to 1901,
$Sl, 4O4, 544 had been spent in Canada on
canals for construction alone. Mil
lions more have been spent since then,
and great schemes for extending the
system are projected. About thirty
thousand vessels. carrying over two
hundred thousand passengers and over
five million tons of freight annually
pass through the Canadian canals.
This is an impressive showing, but
the United States paid well over $780,
100000 for it's thirty principal canals
Twenty-Five of these waterways cost
over a million dollars each, and four
over ten millions apiece. The most
expensive was the Erie canal, which
cost over $4,000 900.
The Panama canal and the New York
State Barge canal will both cost more
money than the Suez canal, which was
constructed for 100000, 900. They also
present far greater engineering difficult
ties.
Another great canal scheme that is
likely to be realized in the course of
the next two or three years is the cut
ting of deep water channel between
st. Louis and Chicago; but at present
it has not advanced beyond the stage
of plans and surveys.