Show from grahams magazine magaz Magai lne ine I 1 PROPOSED PURPOSED oan CAN CANAL AL AT SUEZ 1 BY WILLIAM boive DOWE looking 11 at the isthmus of suez on the map people have an idea that the great canal at that place so much talked a about b on t is is or on would ber bellor was a way going r ight acro aero from one sea gea to toabe ioe joe other in a direct or at least a j well defit defined ed line we are apt to suppose sil sll such ch must have been ilie file case with will the channel which tj they hey say existed there formerly but it is not so the rack track of wat kiat old canal is very uncertain its it i existence indeed is also considered to be uncertain and all thi uncertainty would seem to have aristil asi ari not so much for fon the want of any traces of a canal but fo for fon r the number of the canal trace nature in fact made that part of the world a i ilace liace place of canals or channels long iong before the shep berd herd kingi drove their floch flock lupon its margl marst marshes tes les or Sesostris S t dug a trench french or baked bake a a brick in in it that avs is i a sort 0 hollow lotus iotus rand land ard I 1 1 N ie le makes its Us delta orits many tei yei rythe deltas an carries cairies lis its waters turbid with the he eart eari eartha lipf etha to the mediterranean so that bavm been in lna lua a great measure permeated and overflowed w ed by tie river from the day it first emer emerged geI gel from its state its natural canals must roust have havo been austil 1 I by bi the earliest inhabitants of or s such it a 1 nih lih rih amphibious country and aud his foe for torr tory T or ti ak iti ili 0 n has accordingly na raed that over four t thousand years aeo aso the kings of egypt had bad begun dig trenches tren chesin jn its alluvion alit ailt ivion th oldest ian ter speak of a canal the he ta aas peas the mediterranean and the resea bedea Ee dea sea Hero Her jouis doUis says it was vas made by N necho ho agn of f P add and that hat it i was broad three ir irr ru nel uel nei ei abreast and a taree da dava daba vongo from trona lhea he e strabo again tells ells us its that tiit ses os s tris built hullt aitor one 0 th same character before ahe time of ille ilie war but thai that be abandoned it in the erid crid winz oat the red seadis sea sel was higher triad the mediate afcan aristotle Ar stoie stole davs pha first and nir dir u the persian after him bim at I 1 tempted to complete the canal but they pave fave up tip the dearine the waters if tiie tile he red sea auld rush in and down d own the land ace arc lint of 14 it i iq i that and andt aho ano darius daring have bave con rael arri preserved it but fw file hisame same consider aton alion ays how ever that about or POO doo years before our era darius darlus did actually complete and work the canal for a certain period about years subsequently in the time of trajan and hadrian when that hollow land was roman there here was a canal in existence from cairo eastward toward wady Tou ilat a place considered to be the goshen of the captive hebrew family or somewhere near pear it in A D the caliph omar finding it neglected or useless hollowed it again about years subsequently the caliph A AI mansour tile the great know nothing of his day dwy eldered that it should be choked with isa sand sard afo to prevent present eilt eitt the tle ra caly scaly furn ners from using it and making a of the country as they ibey were doing in g eat numbers after all alf that has been on this ibis subject it is is not at all certain that any canal was ever eer made fi flom om sea to ren sea the canal of necho by which t is probably mean meant that or those of which most of the old writers speak is is allowed to have extended only from suez on the red sea to cairo on the I 1 nile it was carried fi flom oni ont suez over or through a 8 ridge of about five miles broad which lies near that place and separates the sea from the interior I 1 af of the country which sinks toward the north and I 1 is full of ina lna marshes rilles it has been beeh thought that but I 1 fr for the ridge the sea would ovet overflow flow that low wre region the canal of which we speak ran northward to the nei nel beighl of wady Tou 11 the description crip i lon ion tion iod is is ii a loose one but it may serve to convey corm corn ey the idea dea and anft there turned we wedward westward dward in the dil ec tion lionor of the nile at cairo when the french in invaded v egyes gyal in 1799 the th firsa first consul employed the engineers of the army in in surveying the ground of this old w vater ater avay dav which was chosen as the mast practicable DI M linant dinant proposed to form a canal cinal through 1 the salt sait lakeson the hollow ground up to Pe lusiam larn and the shallow bay of a coure course which would be about seventy eive five miles in in length but the fortune of war put an end to the speculation speculations of the french and their great commander the cannon plit put a stop to the he canal latt Laft Latter laiter eriv lv a society was formed consisting of english french and german berrr an capitalists and andeen men of science for the purpose of c working out this ideal idea and stephenson and paul thala bot in in 1847 spent some furne time examine the tiie isthmus and the level levels of the mediterranean and red seas one of the results seems to be it is is al Thala thaia bof boi the frenchman who arrives at it that there is is no such differ difference erice price in these levels as the world lias has long supposed that in fact the mediterranean waters rise rise nearly as high as those of the red sea and that the old fear of inundation was a vain one but this scheme hangs something thin is iq in in the way and the french frenc and other con tine atals do not hesitate to say hat that thit this something is the reluctance of england to io see this shortcut short cut to the east irdi ardies s completed so as to 0 o slip supersede supercede super errede eede cede the system of ship f carria carriaga I 1 c round by the cape of good hope which i is mainly in her hands the rulers of egypt would aiso also seem bisin t gee see a canal made from suez up to the B bay adof of for that route would lie aside from FM egypt apt the current of travel and trade would not really benefit that cou con country mehemet ali all lle ile lie he who raised it to an independent condition wa was desirous to carry cairy the thoroughfare through th the b heart of bis big dominion and so employed an army arty of poor egyptians for several vearlin Ve vears years arsin argin in scooping out the he canal running bet between ale aie alexandria X and cairo by bv this route the waterway water way 11 if complete omelet d to the red rei sea sen would be about four hundred miles long the difference between that thai and about seventy mile would certainly give pi re an ad to that on which the french have been setting ettin their minds they have also niso and some english projectors as well talked of a railroad in the same direction that is across the swamps of that hut lowland region but the greater grenier part of ah he e way is 13 a wilderness wilder wild erne ernp ness s without fit to drink and otherwise n it is liable to sudden inundations of the nile willich submerge the hollow pla ni to toa tea a great preat exten the whole region is so low and sandy that it must have bave been oice olce covel covet e I 1 by the vae s of lh Md we have ah badr spoken of wady wndy Tour olat as occupying the sit site sile e of the ancient G oshen goshen or lvin ivin ivins very near it the children of israel 1 on their ilai way necessarily pass through that swampy ond and channeled leion lelon deion we have spoken of sa so liable to be covered oy by sudden inundations this ha led a great eat many free mind minds to specula and semp seme persons have c included that the knape page P age of or the s and ard the slid sudden len ien destruction of pharaoh and his chivalry enst have taken I 1 place in those lowlar lowlands ids where a fierce 0 overflow ve rii ril ow of the nie which seams to I 1 ave had formerly a more pc powerful wertal currant ir in thai thal would iove love the historic miracle rec recorded corded 1 young le and his hii stad stat were nce once nee very nearly hearly drowned in one of those un ap cl cli d eath cath E prints of the waters and it i was with wilh d they escaped the fate of the egyptian leader and his hig hi s mei met i As te atiq that projected broj lp th Frenc frenchmen are right and ani ani that john ball lia iia no not mind to see it compe ed if ships were vere ono onoe once p 1 to pats th that atway way from the AT to the indian shores arid and sea seas the cm cr m nerce of europe I 1 be 4 and me the sea 1 of eng engl ill lii it i would woud be i r adiv com pd the people of the old clise dair nnie shor shon s of that sea woul would w v lre tcp to fhe he ne meet reet trade ird d enterer se f tapir ance ancestors tors their war to the tho east boub be so 11 yeary eally catly eally cally shelt shi r ened and ani the commerce of afna na lions would flow onci once once acre mere before their doors france would greatly really benefit from a change which would inflict a severe blow upon the shipping in interest of england by giving giving the rest of mankind a share in in that wt lucrative business she has lids beenie been 50 long enabled to monopolise mono it is not very ery probable that the suez thoroughfare will be soon opened it is is said the expense of making it might be between twenty and thirty millions of dollars dollar a pretty round sum thenia then if it were once a ship the commerce comme ice of russia sia sla would flow over it from the black sea and thus increase the influence of that dreaded power there is is no doubt hat that the he czar has his eye oil on the isthmus of suez as much as any of the other potentate 0 tent ates atts and makes his calculations ace accordingly or if f he were once master of the dardanelles Darda nelles nellei he would look on himself himsel fas as chief gate gatekeeper keeper leeper of suez and aid his maritime marii maril ime enterprise ener to the south combined with his hi military gry establishments in in he north would enable him to put pill a girdle round all asia a as it were and hold within that circle the astonished empire of john bull in in the he east speculation could easily easily plunge over head heid and ears into this subject of t the suez canal but it is is useless us eles we must wait to see how bow the crimea business is to end there will be a good deal of and wild change in in that part of the world before the eople people of the pick axe and shovel will be allowe allowed X to go to work in in the ditches and salt licks of suez the calnon cannon will put a stop to the canal as before |