The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-05-12
LONDON TO
In a e. Years the Trip May Be Made
hy Isail-Few Cans I be Closed.
Locomotive Whistle to be Heard In
Land If Eden

~ VI ~
Within a few years it will be posi-
bic to go from London to Khartoum,
| Egypt, by railway, with ferries across
| the English channel, the BoSphorous
! and the Red sea. Taking the train in
London, you will follow the regular
route of the Orient Express through
France and southern Germany to
| Vienna, BUDAPEST, Belgrade and So
fla, to Censtantinople. There you will
cross the Bosphorus into Turkey-in-
Asia, and. running southeastward to
| Aleppo, will there take the French line
now under construction to Damascus
and follow the east bank Of the Jordan
| southwark into Arabia, to Mecca. At
Jeddah, the seaport Of the holy city, a
| ferry will take passengers across the
Red sea to Suakin, Egypt, where they
will resume their railway journey, via
| Berber, to the ancient and historic city
of Khartoum, at the junction of the
Blue and the White Nile. The journey
ought o to take more than five or six
days, and l have no doubt that through
trains will be equipped like those which
| crossed Siberia before the beginning of
| the present war.
There are Severa wide gaps between
| Constantinople and Jeddah at present
but they are being rapidly closed up.
| The Turkish government is building
| from Damascus southwark, a French
| syndicate is building northward from
the same point and a German Syndi-
I cate, in which French, EngliIl, Bel
| gian and Italian capitalists are also in
tereSted. is constructing the line from
| COnstantinople to Bagdad and expects
| to push it through Persia down to the
| Persian gulf, a distance of 1862 miles
| form Constantinople. The con tractors
| have promised to complete the road in
five years.
The track has already reached Eregf
and the surveyors are now selecting a
| route across the Taurus mountains,
| where the greatest engineering difficult
/ ties have been encountered and the
most costly construction will be neces-
sary.
BY RAILROAD TO THE, ISLAND OF
EDEN.
This road will make accessible to
tourists and open to commerce the most
interesting country in the world, ex-
cept the Holy Land. 1t will follow the
banks of the Euphrates to the land Of
Eden, the cradle of the human race,
and touch nearly all of the countries
associated with Old Testament history.
Ur of the Chaldees, the ruins of Baby
lon, Nineveh and the other most an
cient habitatiOns of men will be found
among the stations on the time table,
and Mesopotamia, which was once the
most populous, the most productive and
the richest section of the earth's sur
face, will be reclaimed by the intro
duction of capital and labor and the
| restoration of the irrigation system
which was destroyed many centuries
ago. For transportation Mesopotamia
now depends entirely upon caravans OF
camels and a few small boats upon the
Tigris and the E%uphrates, and it's COM
merce us comparatively small. Its area
according to the gazetteers is 1SO.u0o
square miles and it's population about
a million and a half, nearly all of them
being Bedouin nomads, engaged in rails
ing cattle and sheep, with only enough
agricultural products to sustain them
selves.
Bagdad is the commercial center and
has a foreign trade of about $4,000
OOO, almost equally divided between i'm
ports and exports. The chief exports
are wool, carpets, hides, skins, lcOrice
root and mOhair, and he imports are
cotton goods, refined petroleum, hard
ware and other ne~cesSaries of life.
FERTILE MESOPOTAMIA.
In ancient times the plains and val
ieys of Mesopotamia produced enor
nous crops and are still capable Of
yielding cotton, rice, maize and Other
staples to almost any amount The sol
has a wonderful fertility and has lail
idle, accommodating plant nourishment
for nearly two thousand years. Before
it's development is possible, however
irrigation systems must be introduced
and the population is SO scanty that al
forms of labor-saving machinery viii
be necessary to utilize the productive
area to any extent. Last fall the Sui
tan of Turkey issued an trade, author
izing Sir William Wilcokc, late d1rec
tor general of irrigation in Egypt, tt
examine into the nc1ent svS
TENS along the Tigris and Euphrate'
rivers, in order to ascertain the cos
of their restoration and report upon
general irrigation project for the val
leys of both rivers.
; Sir William has been engaged in thi'
work all winter, with a party OF engl
neers, and a report is expected from
/ him some time during the coming sum
= mer. He discussed this subject in
paper read before the Geographical So
ciety al Cairo two years ago, when n
declared that the deltas of the Tigri
and the Euphrates, containing owe
100000 acres of land. now par
swamps and part desert, were "of al
the regions of the earth more favore'
by nature for the production of cereals
l Cotton, sugar cane, Indian corn an
| all the summer products of EgyNt,' h
said, Twill flourish there as on tn