Nine Great World Canals

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 31, Issue 44, 31 October 1907, Page 7

Nine Great World Canals

There are nine great ship canals in the world, and all of these have ibfcen built within the , last seventyfive years. They are the Suez, -the Kronstadt and Si Petersburg, the Corinth, the Manchester ship, the Kaiser Wilhelm, the Elbe and Trave, the Welland, and the two canals connecting .Lake Superior and Lake Huron between Canada and the United States. In a single velar a greater uunrber of ships pass through the lake canals 'than through the Suez, though there is no doubt that fh,e latter is by far the most important water link in the world. It is the longest,, being 10U rciles from entrance to exit, and it cost more than £ro;tJO(f,000 to build. About four thousand ships pass through the Suez annually. It takes eighteen hours for a vessel to go the entire length of the canal. There are no locks, and a part of the route, about two-thirds of it, is made up of a series of shallow, lakes. The Kronstadt and" St. 'Petersburg canal is altogether about sixteen miles, including the bay channel. It is an important commercial waterway and connects the capital of rtussia with the Bay of Kronstadt After the construction of the Corinth canal, which is only four miles long, a raving of 175 miles was made by* ships sailing, from Adriatic ports. A part of this canal was cut through solid rock and, short as it is took -. nine years to build. ' A direct route from Manchester to the Atlantic ocean was obtained by the digging of the Manchester 'canal. From Manchester ships now go through the artificial waterway to the Mersey river, and from there to the open sea. This canal is fitted ,. with hydraulic Jocks. In the. United States are three great canals all of them lin^s between the Great lakes. The Welland connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie on the Canadian side of the river. It is twenty-seven miles long and has twenty-five sels of locks.