The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-17

trees and the other vegetation which
 clothes the equator It will be through
 q mountainous region, over lakes and up and down the mighty water steps
 known as locks.
 The Suez canal is trip through the
 desert. The only difference between it
 and the ordinary trip of that kind Is
 that one rides on the oeck of a steamer
 instead of on the back of a camel And
 still it has wonderful beauties which
 our canal will not have. The last time | I passed through from SueZ to Port Said l spent the night on the canal.
 Our ship was steamng through the
 sands, under the stars of the tropics. | We had a great round moon of burn | ing copper which turned the canal to
 molten silver, and our pathway was
 made stil brighter .by the electric
 searehlights which blazed from our
 masthead and brow Standing upon the deck, we could see, now and then, on | the banks of a caravan of ungainly cam
 els with their ghost-like riders clad in white bobbing up and down under the
 moon.
 We passed many steamers whose
 searchlights made one think of so many l cyclopean demons, each with~ ~nn eye of | fire in his forehead. marching on to lt-
 tack him. We had to go slowly. The canal is already too small for the trafflc and ships are allowed to go 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 tie up to allow other vessels to pass.
 There are many dredges in the canal, and steam pumps are kept sucking the | sand from the bottom and throwing 1t out upon the banks, The canal is now a
 little over 30 feet deep, but 1t will
 soon be B feet from one end to the other Within the past 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 It. or of building another by l the side for the surplus traffic
 | It is not far cry from Suez to Greece. It lies on the other side of the Mediter-
 reanean, and not long ago was composed | mostly of what is now the mainland and | the Peleponnesus. which was joined to 1t l by the Isthmus of corinth. In 1893 this l isthmus was cut through by the corinth canal, and lower Greece was thus turned | into an island This shortens the journey ] from the Adriatic to the Piraeus by ovar | 200 miles,, and the canal should be one of 1 the trade routes of the Mediterranean | It is not. When l visited it year or SO | ago there was comparatively little ship | ping going through and was, told that | the canal Is so situated that 1t forms q [ | steamers.
 | The walls Of the Corinth canal are 20 | or 300 feet high. and the canal itself is | only about 80 feet wide. It's depth is only
 2S feet, and the biggest of steamers cannot go through it. A new company has re
 gently taken possession of it. and 1t Is said
 that it will be deepened and made avail
 able for vessels of heavier tonnage. This company bought the canal for less than | s9),D01 although it cost something like | s12. .0000Q0 to build
 l The Corinth canal is beautiful ditcn
 with great green walls on each side, and
 breakwaters and lighthouses at either l end. The canal is spanned by an ron
 bridge TO feet high, and this is crossed | by the chief trunk railway, which runs l from Athens to Patras.
 | Our next trip will be across Europe and | into Great Brltian. We want to see the
 ship canal at Manchester. which connects
 the chief cotton milling center on earth with the Atlantic ocean. Only few l years ago our cotton was all landed at Liverpool and if had 10 he carried to
 the Manchester factories by rail Now the steamers can go right up the Merssy and thence through great locks to | the doors of the factories. The Manches- l ter canal is B miles long If Is P miles shorter than our canal at Panama. Within