The First Passage Of The Suez Canal

Tho Waters of tho Meditorrauean have at leDgth niingled vvith those of tho Red öea. On the lötli of August, a day obviously selected out of compliment to the French Jimperoi1, the fioocl gatos connctinL tho canal which has been cut through the Isthmus of Suez with the McditoiTaneau were oponed, and ;i vessel, Uefeü with oo:il, passod from the latter to tho Ked Sta. Thus far, then, the labors of M. do Lüssups liavu boca orowuod with succsss, and he can, at all events.coiigratiilutehimsulfonanachievement which, if history and the traces of trench-liko esoaVutions still to be seen in the sthmus do not rnialead us, tho early Sovevoius of Egypt ed in vain. Tlio remaine of a canal are still visible, with whieh, six ceuturies beforo the Cliristian era, Neoho attempted at a sacrifico of oue Uundred and twertty thousund human Uves, but utteinpted ia vain, to unite the Mie with the Ited Sea, and which canal about three ceofuries later Ptolemy II. is believcd to have ontried to eomplotion. Regarded geographically, the Isthrnufl oí Suez has always proseo ted a strong tcmptation to those who are unduurited b eugineering difficuüies to out it through. The vast continent of África is attitchcd to Asia by a uiurow neck of eabdy dosert somo aeventy-fonr miles in breadth, which, if but removed, vyould save the vesael looor-ól at the mouth of the Nilo rnany thousands of miles in n voyago to iho Indian Ooean. Irrespuctive of commercial jotereste, there is something whieh ís naturally provoking ia eeeinsj; two vast oceans separated f rom each other by au appareotly in ignificant barner and it i.i thoret'ore not surprising that suceeeding dynasties in Egypt hould have sought to créate a passage, ïowever narrovv, betwöet) the adjaeent seas which washed tho Lsihmus of Saez on its northern and southern gides. The design of divertiug the waters of the Nile into the Red tica, or, as the latter s on rather a higher level thao the river, of enubliog its waters to comminele with those oi' the Nila appeared The tno3t feasiblo way of realizing this object, and there is reasou for believiüg that thus far the Philadelphia Ptolemy succeeded. Bat if the object had been to open a serviceable pathway for vessels passing from Europe to India, the raeans cbosen were not the best which could have been selected. The navigat'on of the mouth of the Nile is beaet with diiEoulties, and, even if the old canal had not been blocked up with sand, it would never have sarved the purposes for which the new one ia intended. Although, however, a vessel has beea enabled to cross the Isthmus of Suez, wo fear that thia triumph of eugineeriog skill is but temporary, and that the labors of the cornpany, of ivhich M. da Lesseps is the energetic representativo, will ultimately prove as fruitless att those of the Egyptian Kings, Necho and Ptolemy. The same causes which choked up the formor raust equally opérate to the destruetion of the latter. If the isthmus was composed of clayey soil, and fronted on either sido a Srfa rolling on a rocky or moderately sandy bottom, then the vvork of cutling it through when onoy completad wouli leave little or nothing more to be done by those who undertook the task of opening a communication between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceau. But such is, unfortunately, not the case. The isthmus ia entiroly composed of the loosest sand, and on its northern sido espeoially, a washed by shoal water, vvhieh in many places scarcely covers the constautlyshifting banks which are formed by the ourrent of the Nile and tho wators of the Mediterranean. That a canal could ba cut across the isthmus no one ever doubtcd, but that it could be kept opea for navigable purposes the ab!eat and most exporieneed engiueerá have alwaya denied. It is nat merely through tha dry land that it has been found necossary to cat a passago, but also througli the quicksands which for a considerable distance bound the northern shore. To crahaük the formor may bo comparatively enwy ; but to pmbaok the lattar, or, in other words, to keep tho chanuel clear, is beüeved to be an impossibility. We should be sorry if it were suppo.-sei that we were desi-us of disuour&ging tho e eagag d in wh.at is not oiily a !;r.t undertakitig, but one whiuti wiuild muterially aclvinoe the commercial fntöresl's of every civil zed rita'e ; but u-o ure fiiroed to declare that tha passigo of a single vess"l through tiia artifioially created strait is, after all, only evid nco of what ujay provo nlêrely a 'ornporary tria:nph.