The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-20

caravan of long ungainly camels, with their ghost-lflxe riders bobbing up and down under the moon. Our own path way was made brighter by the light of electricity. We had one blazing globe at our masthead, fed by dynamo on deck, and another at our prov. The latter threw it's rays this way and that across the channel in front of the steamer, turn ing the waters to an opaleseent blue, re- minding one of the Blue Grotto of Capri. We passed many ships. In the distance they appeared only as two blazing eyes shown by the rehectors which all vessels are required to keep lighted as they pass through. As the ships came nearer they rose ghost-like up from the water, the masses of hulls and rigging with the fiery eyes making one think of demons about to attack him.
 The trip through the canal is slow. The ships are allowed to go only five or six miles an hour, and now and then they have 10 tie up to posts which have been set into the banks of the canal to allow other steamers to pass. These posts are to be seen everywhere along both sides of the waterway from Port Said to SueZ. In most places they are about 100 feet apart, and are so arranged that ships can be made stationary as others go by.
 Parts of the banks are walled with stones to prevent the sand falling in and tlAlti5 up iut tdHdlf put this the dredges have to be kept at work all the year round. Not far from Port Said 1 saw great pumps operated by steam sucking the sand from the bottom of the channel and carrying 1t through pipes far out over the desert I am told that the process of cleaning and deepen ing the waterway is always going on.
 Improvements at Suez.
 The Suez canal of 1907 is far different from that which was opened in 1s6s As originally planned the channel was less than 9 feet deep and so constructed that it would not have accommodated the ship ping which goes through today. It Is now about 30 feet deep, and there are improve ments under way to make it's depth s5 feet Since the beginning of last year ships with a draft of 27 feet have been allowed to pass through. and the day will come when ships of & feet and 34 feet draft will be admitted. The canal has been wdened so that it's average width at the surface is about 300 feet, and the curves in it have been rounded off so as to shorten the time of transit and enable ships to pass the more easily Within the past year or so more than 22,000,000 tons of earth mud and sand have been taken out of it. and the shipping facilities have been greatly lIlprONeu DolH dl Iofl lew fix and at Port Said. Here at the south ern end of the canal they are now dredg ing out basins which are intended to ac- commodate the colliers and tank steam CTS carrying coal oil, and at Port Said the coaling arrangements have been so improved that the largest steamers can load thousands of tons of coal in a very few hours.
 Will New Canal Be Built?
 These Improvements have been made on account of the crowded condition of the canal and the imperative necessity of deepening it in order to accommodate the big steamers now building As it is it is a question whether 35 feet will long be deep enough, for ships grow bigger and bigger and their draft deeper and deepr from year to year. There has been de- mand for a second canal on account of the crowding, and the steamship owners of the world have complained again and again of the heavy tolls. Not long ago it was stated that the money was ready in London to build British canal at a cost of from $30 000, 900 to $35, 100000, and it was suggested that such a canal might be constructed from the town of ll Arish on the Mediterranean on the borders of Egypt to Akabah on the Red sea beyond the Egyptian frontier. Such a canal would take advantage of the Gulf of Akabah, but it would. I am told. be still about twice as long as the SueZ canal. According to the concessions granted to the canal company any Egyptian canal made parallel to the present one will have to be made by it or with its consent.