THE FIRST SUEZ CANAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 18 November 1907, Page 4

THE FIRST SUEZ CANAL.

A water comunicatron for small vessels between the Mediterranean and tlio Red Sea. is said to have been formed as early as 600 yeans before the Christian era, and existed for a period of about 1400 years, after which it was allowed to fall into disuse. Baron de Tott, in his "Memoirs of trie Turks and Tartars," written in 1875, after g'ving quotations from the historian Diodorus as to the existence of certain portions of the early work, and as to its having been abandoned in consequence of the supposed difference of level between the two seas and threatened inundations of Egypt, said that there still existed traces of the canal. Tire idea of restoring this ancient communication on a scale suited to modern times is understood to have been due to Napoleon 1., and the outcome of his idea was the Suez Canal, or, more correctly speaking, the artificial stnrt or arm of the sea connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. From both of these seas ; t derives its water supply; and the fact that the two seas are nearly on the same level, and the rise of the tide is very small, allowed this mode of construction to be adopted.