Omaha daily bee., 1912-03-17

canal is already too email for the traffic
and ships are allowed to 20 only five or
six miles an hour. Little recesses have
been cut into the banks here and there,
where, upon telegraphic notice vessels
have to lie up to allow other vessels 10
pass.
There are many dredges in the canal,
and steam pumps are kept sucking the
sand from the bottom and throwing Il
out upon the banks. Tho canal Is now a
little over thirty feet deep. but Il will
soon be thirty-five feet from one end to
the other. Within the last year or so
many millions OF tons OF earth and mud
have been taken out Of the bottom. and
there is now talk OF widening II. or OF
building another by the size for the sur.
plus traffic.
The Corinth ship Canal.
1t Is not far cry from suez 10 Greece.
II lies on the other side Of the Medlter.
ranean, and not long ago was composed
mostly OF what Is now the mainland and
the Peloponnesus. which was Joined to
II by the Isthmus Of Corinth. In 1888
TINS lHAAillhS NuS Cut ny Nut
corlnth canal. and lower Greece was thus
turned into an island. This shortens the
journey from the Adriatc to the Piraeus
BY over 200 miles. and the canal should
be one OF the trade routes Of the Medl-
terranean. II is not. when I visited II
a year or SO ago there was comparatively
little shipping going through. and I waz
told that the canal Is 90 situated that
II forms huge air shaft which makes It
unsafe for steamers.
The walls Of the corinth canal are 800
or 800 feet high. and the canal itself Is
only about eighty feet wide. Its depth
is only twenty-three feet. and the biggest
of steamers cannot go throughIt. new
company has already taken possession
of 1t. and 1t Is said that 1t viii be
deepened and made available for vessels
OF heavier tonnage. This company
bought the canal for less than 10000. al
though 1t cost something like 100000 to
build.
The corinth canal Is a beautiful ditch
with great green walls on each side. and
hreakwaters and lighthouses at either
end. The canal is spanned by an iron
bridge 10 feet high. and this is crossed
by the chief trunk railway. which runs
from Athens to Patrss.
Built for American Cotton.
Our next trip will be across Europe
and into Great Britain. We want to see
the ship canal at Manchester. which con-,
meets the chief cotton milling center on
earth with the Atlantic ocean. Only a
few years ago our cotton was landed at
Liverpool, and it had to be carried to
the Manchester factories by rail. Now
the steamers can go right up the Mersey
and thence through the great locks to the
doors OF the factories. The Manchester
canal is thIrty-five miles long. II Is
twelve miles shorter than our canal at
Panama. Within that distance the ships
are lifted up about sixty feet, and that
In five great hicks which rise one over
the other.
This canal goes through some Of the
most beautiful farming country OF Eng
land. Leaving Msnehster. you sail out
Of q region OF mighty warehouses and
factories into a land Of farms as green
as Ohio in June. The fields are divided
by green hedges. and upon the rich grass
fat cattle are feeding. Every now and
then you pass a manufacturing town.
You go under one great railroad bridge
after another. and finally drop down to
the Mersey river, with Its vast shipping
from al parts OF the world
Tho Manchester canal Is in mSny re-
spects Ike that OF Panama 1t is a lock
canal, and It was cut out Of the rock.
The excavation, however. amounted to
only a.oo1ooo tons. which was a bagatelle
in comparison with the hundreds Of MIL
lions We have had to lake out.
The canal was begun with the idea