THE SUEZ CANAL IN 1880.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 4, Issue 178, 25 December 1880, Page 3

THE SUEZ CANAL IN 1880.

The following description -if the present oonditiiuiand appearance of i ho Suez (.'anal and its surroundings, b ¥ v it correspondent of tin* Loudon r.im-1. in February last, is

mil a eheoriiig one : "It is just seven years siuco I last passed tlirougll the Suez ('anal, ami it, is about the same ti .since I saw Port Saiil. Many changes were promised seven years ago, ami f expected inuoli on inv' retain. But nothing has really

been done, and I feel as if it were yesterday that I went through the Kjryp'tian llosplioms in the good ship Xnliia." The vegetation along the hanks is just as scanty, the trees that were promised have never l*en planted, the same wild waste of desert, with its marvellous mirage of lake and woodland still ets the eye, the deep-water passage of the ship eniial remains only '.'4 yards broad, and the lo gare*, or widened spaces, where slaps can pass each other, have not been increased in number. The broad but useless Bitter ]*akes, the wide reaches of Tiliisoh, lliilu, uud Menzaloh. are still only used as •waterways for the passing ships. Indeed, the only improve nt ] observed after iny seven yours' absence was that the banks of the canal had been faced with stone for about a ipiarter of its whole length. Not a single town, not oven the smallest hamlet, has sprung up on its banks. Jsinuilia,'which was to be tin? capital of the isthmus, is hardly more than a deserted village, the scanty inhabitants of which wander disconsolately through its silent streets. The great fresh-water canal which debouches there from Cairo brings no traffic of importance, the restoration of tin- ancient band | of (iosheu, through which it passes with I its fertilizing .•stream, remains a thing of! the future. No wonder the passengers pronounce the canal a dull affair as they steam slowly through the vast solitude :it the regulation five knots an hour. Port Saiil has not advanced any more than (he rest of the isthmus. The railway which was promised from the Delta has never been undertaken, the canal which was to join it with Daliuietta is forgotten, the va.st salt marsh which cuts off the town from all cultivation still stagnates 4.00,011(1 acres, the favourite haunt of pelicans and flamingoes, and Port. Said seems doomed to tic meagre glories of a big coaling station mi the highway of nations, but outside all civilization. .Seven thousand Arabs thrive mi the transfer of coal from wharf to ship. which they do in huge gangs at a. ra'e which make." Port Said the fastest coaling place in the world. All the change T noticed in the little red-roofed town lay in the great Dutch hotel built by the late Prince of Orange, ami the much increased length of the western breakwater. This bulwark against the. sea has bard work to divert the mud-laden current which sets eastward from the JJainietta mouth of the Nile, ('.instant dredging of the channel by a huge seagoing dredger of IIHHI-liorse'powcr'iiardly sullices to keep it clear, and the lime must come when a supplementary jetty will have to be constructed some 2(1 miles up to divert this never-ceasing supply of choking silt. A better plan would be to utilise fur the benefit of the country the whole of the riches of the Nile, but I fear the day i-: far distant when I his stock of fertilising mud will cease to run to waste.

" It. is singular how tin- only danger that was do.spisi-.il at t)i<- creation u)' the cutuil is proved In lie tin- miu real impediment in ii- utility. The >li-l-.i<l.-.1 eiiiTciil from the lieil Sea lias tui'iii-il oul mi :U nil. mid tin: i u v.is in the channel ■vlii-li u.-iv mail.! tu rcsi I tin- ell'ect ill' i in- i-unviit iii-»- iiuw pro-ii.miu-i-.l wholly nun ssary. Indeed, yesterday, when I came through in the i'oonab, tin- longest ship that"had ever entered tin- i-aiml, tln-si- curves proved vi-i-y serious obstacles tu a ipiii-k passage-, Tlie sand-storms ami wash from the banks, which with other prophesied dangers, are readily controlled by the" occasional use of tin- three small dredgers tin- company keeps ready for this work of clearance. To the confusion of the pniphets, tlie canal easily maintains its normal depth, and only last week a large Hnssiau ironclad— tine Minima—passed through without any cheek, though she drew 'J4J feet of water. Hut stoppages occur rather too frequently, as all ships that pass depend on the good steering of the meanest craft that precede them from station to station. If one ship goes on the bank, an inevitable jam ensues, and tin; whole commerce of Kuropo for the time is stopped. Now that, the company is, ataiiy rate for the present, commercially successful, they ought seriously to consider the advisability of increasing the number of stopping places, or even of widening the deep-water channel, so that ships can pass each other everywhere. This latter task would not be so difficult, as the surface of the canal is nowhere under (ill vards broad.

"1 found Unit ijuiiv fuiir-til'tlm uf tintralllr of III" I'lilltll i» furiUMlii'd li.V ItritUli voiiiiin.'n'i 1 . It is mil mi i;.\tl(,'p'l'Hti<>ii to my tluit it' tin- llritii.li line won' witliilniwu tlio rano 1 would not liim it ili'imli'. iini' mm Imiiilri.'il unit siily lliiillsuuil |ioilmln u yuur to tlw iioiu'itii. Vi'l tin l iiiiii|i;iny iVriimli,ou'omi'iiilßiii'i'lViiiili. tin'nil.miiiil rcftiilutimm urn French, iiml tin' whole of tho ir-tlunoii'-initliinj,'lnil ii litllo I'riiiiM'. Mowt'vi'r.tlit' nintiiigi'Uiont, on tlin wliiiJu, is (footl, aiiiltlii'liliH'ksysti'iiitiiiiV.iiili'ullisiniiis nmitiluilicd fi'oiit ntutimi tn stiiliiiu with nil tlir method nf u woll-iiiiiii.wil milwnv vninjiuuy, Hut the I'linnl nutliorilli'H hliuiiM tuwr forHit their strictly Intot'iutlii I iliiii'iniit, Mwt fiivuiiis Hi to n spci'ily |iiihMiui< shiiuhl not lit) rlv vi'ii to i\' I'Yciicli miiil lini'llni, •J*Dot I'ljiitilly shown to tin' uinil itMUIW*

lof other nation!. The qutslioa might ul(k lie reasonably considered whether the con ecru is net overweighted with officials line ollii cis. .\n establishment at §BW, amilhei at Ismailia. a thin) at Tairo, a fourth at l'ort Said, a fifth at Maiseilcs. and a sixlh at Paris, are hardly consistent ivith the strict economy of a paying commercial busim ss.'