New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-03-18

canal on his way toward Athens he put the shin
ing black paint her graceful sides in some
Jeopardy. one would not think there was much
danger in sailing through level canal 70 feet
wide, &c feet deep and straight as an arrows
flight for distance Of less than four miles with
q T70-tOn vessel like the Corsair, but when one
tries to cut off the two hundred miles involved in
Rktrting the deeply indented coast of the Pelo-
ponnesian peninsula, and thus save time in the
Journey to Athens, one in reality is running some
risk The dangers lie in the relatively swift
rent which courses through the waterway and the
possibility Of landslips from the precipitous walls
On either side 1t is a veritabIe canyon about the
width Of Broadway, with banks rising as high
as the sByscrapers on either side of New York's
great highway. The water sometimes moves
through this channel at the rate Of three knots
an hour, making it difficult to prevent vessels
from scraping the rock walls which border It on
either side. Because Of the difficulties involved
IN navigating this strait few vessels besides the
GTecian craft venture to use it. Large vessels
prefer to take the long journey around Cape
Matapan- About half of the foreign vessels
which make use of the passage are steam yachts
whose owners desire to make a short cut going
TO or from Athens. By using the canal they save
considerable time and have opportunity TO
visit the site of the famous old city of Cornth
and the noted isthmian games and to see the
remains OF the isthmian wall
If the ancient Greeks never besought Neptune
TO cut with his trident a passage through the
tsthmus, which was the part of the country
where he was held most in esteem, It was not
because they did not want such a waterway. Six
hundred years before Christ Fernandez the
Corinthian tyrant took the very practical
method of determining whether Poseidon would
permit such a channel to be filed with water by
employing some Egyptian engineers to survey
the isthmus Demetrius I, a successor of Alex
Ender the Great as King Of Macedon was the
Haxt to take up the scheme. But his engineers
decided that the Gulf Of COrinth was higher
than the Gulf Of Hgina The priests added to
the apprehension Of the engineers as to what the
result Of opening the waterway would be by SOL
EMMY announcing that great disaster would
follow such undertaking. julius Cesar and
CaHgula gave the idea some thought but moth
ing came Of it
The isthmus came nearer being cut in 81 A D.
than at any time until It was actually con-
gTuctcd The notorious Nero had an idea that
he was a singer. actor and an athlete and
he determined to raise his voice and display his
limbs at the GrecIan festivals he accordingly
went to Greece, and the Grecans accommodate
fns1y arranged that all the festivals should be
crowded into one year. Nero flung his horses
and chariot around the arena like any other
ehArtoteer and graciOusly sang and actad for
The entertainment of the Grecian populace. The
Grecian Judges tactfully humored him and he
won IN everything. Crowns in great profusion
were placed upon his brow. AS a lasting memo
nal OF his visit he decreed that a canal sbouId
Be cut across the isthmus, and with golden