Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-01-04

Copyright. 1907 by Frank G.. Carpenter.)
ON THE GERMAN EAST AFRICAN
STEAMER FELDMARSHALL.
AM on a German steamer of 5000
tons, sailing down the Red sea. We
took ship three days ago at Port
~ Said, and were eighteen hours going
| through the Suez canal. We tarried a
whil9 at Suez- and we are now off Port
Sudan, where the new railroad across
the Nubian desert begins We are just
opposite Jeddah, where. according to the
Mohammedans. Mother Eve was buried,
and where the Pilgrims start out over
the desert to Mecca. With the ships
glass one can almost see the place where
the greatest grandmother of all mankind
| lies She rests outside the wall in a tomb
400 feet long, and a mosque rises over
| her dust. You have heard the Moham-
medan story of how Adam fell. Eve gave
him the apple, and he ate IL. and as
punishment both he and she were cast
out of the Garden of Eden. As they
dropped a strong west wind was blowing.
and this waited the fairy form of Eve
| to Arabia: while Adam, with his heavier
| weight, fell down in Ceylon. There is a
string of coral keys running from Ceylon
| to Hindoostan, which is still known as
Adams bridge. and it was over them that
he started out on his long hunt for Eve.
| ~
the meeting was somewhere near Mecca.
| What became of Adams bones we do not
know, but those of Eve are supposed to
| lie at Jeddah
Odd Features of the Red Sea.
Jeddah is just about half way down the
Rel sea. 1t took us thirty-six hours to
come here, and we shall be fully that
long in steaming to the Strait of Babel
Mandeb, where we enter the Indian
| ocean. The Red sea is mighty small on
the map. 1t looks like scratch between
Asia and Africa; but the scratch is ac-
| tually about 200 miles wide in many
places. and so deep that the most OF the
Blue Ridge mountains could be dropped
| down into it, and only their higher peaks
| would reach the surface. The Red sea is
so long that if it began at Ireland. and
extended westward across the Atlantic, 1t
would go half way to Canada If 1t could
be lifted up and laid down. upon the
United States with Suez at Philadelphia,
Bab-el-Mandeb would be a hundred miles
or so beyond Omaha, Neb., and all the
way between would be a sea canal as
wide as from New York to Washington.
or wide enough to accommodate all the
navies of the world abreast. and leave
hundred miles or more to spare.
A Rival for the Suez Canal.
| This mighty waterway narrows almost
| to a point at each end. Where it leaves
the Indian ocean 1t is TO wider than the
English channel at Dover, and it Is lost
| at the north in the Suez canal. Starting
at Bab-el-Mandeb, the coasts broaden out
and then run almost straight to the upper
end, where they fork into two CULTS and
| inclose the lower part Of the Sinai penin-
sula. These two CULTS are those of Suez
| and Akabah. The gulf Of Suez is 40
| miles long. and it has been Joined to the
| Mediterranean by the Suez canal. The
| gulf of Akabah is 40 miles long, and
| capitalists are now talking of making a
| canal from it to the Mediterranean. The
| Akabah canal would be a considerable
distance east of the Suez canal, but 1t
would practically parallel 1t. 1t would run
| through Turkish territory, and for this
reason 1t can be built without infringing
| on the Suez canal concession. which re-
lates to Egypt alone. I am told that
new canal would pay well. That of Suez
is already overcrowded. and there is
| enough business for two.
| AS to the Red sea itself. it has deep
water throughout Along the main chan
| mel there is a full half mile of salt sea
under the ships. and in some places it is
more than a mile and half deep. The