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SUEZ CANAL. 



performed also much literary labor. His prin- 

 cipal published works were : " The Christian 

 World," "The Book and Journal," and "The 

 Bible Times " (periodicals devoted to the dif- 

 fusion of primitive and scriptural Christianity) ; 

 "The Pastor's Tribute" (poems), 1848 ; "Float- 

 ing Flowers from a Hidden Book " (poems), 

 1844; "Something New" (poems), 1844; 

 "The Bible Alliance," 1850; "Sermons for 

 the People," 1854; "Stand up for Jesus," and 

 " The Blessing," small illustrated volumes, 1858 ; 

 " Poems with Autobiographic and other Notes," 

 1862 ; " The Peerless Magnificence of the "Word 

 of God," and a work on " The Mediation of 

 Christ," published since his death. 



SUEZ CANAL, THE. Among the many 

 works of extraordinary magnitude, expense, 

 and general usefulness, which have been re- 

 cently executed in different countries, the 

 nearly-completed excavation and opening of 

 the Suez Canal, in Egypt, is the most impor- 

 tant. It connects the Mediterranean with the 

 Eed Sea, placing the East and the "West in 

 easy communication with each other by the 

 shortest route. 



The low, swampy, and in some parts sandy, 

 strip of land which now separates the two 

 seas, makes one conjecture and almost believe 

 that their waters once mingled over this de- 

 pression, and the Nile flowed through them 

 across into Lake Timsah. Hence, dividing its 

 waters into two branches, the one flowed 

 northward to the Mediterranean, the other 

 southward through the Bitter Lakes to the 

 Eed Sea near Suez, from which the whole 

 isthmus has derived its name. 



The ancient Egyptians appreciated the im- 

 portance of a water communication from sea to 

 sea, and eventually opened it, though they con- 

 fined their views to an intercourse with Arabia. 

 But, enterprising though they were, and having 

 inexhaustible means of manual labor at com- 

 mand, as their works attest, they shrank from 

 the difficulty of cutting a canal across the 

 isthmus in a direct line, on account of the va- 

 rious obstacles presented by the condition of 

 the place, and sought to effect their passage in 

 an easier manner by a roundabout way. They 

 followed the course of the Nile, sailing on its 

 waters so long as it was navigable, and from 

 the point where it ceased to be so, they cut an 

 artificial channel supplied with water from 

 that river, and debouching into the Red Sea at 

 a point near the present site of Suez. Their 

 line was, as it were, divided into four sections, 

 having an aggregate length of 92 miles: 

 namely, 13 miles from Suez to the Bitter 

 Lakes, 27 through these lakes, 40 from the 

 Bitter Lakes to El Ouady (of Tomat), and 12 

 from El Ouady to Bubastis, then one of the 

 principal branches of the Nile. 

 ^ The origin of this canal of antiquity is as- 

 signed by some to Rameses II., or to Se- 

 sostris, about 1300 years before the Christian 

 <era, by others to Psammetichus's son Necho, 

 who reigned six centuries later. Herodotus 



ascribes it to this king, and adds the circum- 

 stance that, frightened by the response of an 

 oracle foretelling the invasion of barbarians 

 through the canal, if completed, he desisted 

 from the enterprise, yet not till 120,000 Egyp- 

 tians had perished in the work. It was fin- 

 ished and opened, however, in the succeeding 

 reign. That historian, who lived in the fifth 

 century B. o., bears witness to the existence of 

 the canal of the Pharaohs at the time when he 

 visited Egypt, relating that it was wide enough 

 to admit of two triremes sailing abreast, that 

 it was much frequented by trading-craft, and 

 that the navigation on it from sea to sea lasted 

 four days. The nations, under whose subjec- 

 tion Egypt successively passed afterward, did 

 not fail to give their attention to this canal as 

 a matter of great public importance. On the 

 Arab invasion in the seventh century of our 

 era, however, it was no longer existing, as ap- 

 pears from the fact that Omar's vicegerent in 

 Egypt proposed to open a channel from Suez 

 to the Gulf of Pelusium, and supply it with 

 water by restoring the canal of the Pharaohs. 

 Omar at first disapproved the project, lest its 

 execution should be a means for Christian in- 

 cursions, but finally consented to it, in order to 

 furnish Arabia with provisions. The canal 

 remained in a navigable condition from 649 to 

 767, when the Caliph El Mussour Abool Hadur 

 filled it up, for the purpose of starving the peo- 

 ple of Mecca and Medina. 



The vestiges of the old canal are still dis- 

 cernible, showing its width to have been 

 from 100 to 200 feet. Men of power in the 

 world have subsequently directed their atten- 

 tion to its reopening, and even taken some 

 preliminary measures toward its realization, 

 regarding it as vastly important to the develop- 

 ment of European commerce in the Eastern 

 seas. Napoleon Bonaparte, when he went, or 

 was sent, to Egypt in 1798, discovered the 

 traces of the ancient canal near Suez, and, ap- 

 preciating its use, appointed a commission, in 

 which M. Le Pire was prominent, for the pur- 

 pose of inquiring into the subject of excavating 

 one across the isthmus, a body of engineers 

 being employed to survey the line. Although 

 the then disturbed state of the country ren- 

 dered the work both difficult and slow, the en- 

 gineers being unable to proceed without an es- 

 cort, and obliged to return with the escort when 

 this was called back for active military service, 

 which frequently happened, yet the survey was 

 finally got through. Before seeing the report 

 presented by the commission, however, Napo- 

 leon had returned to France, and, his attention 

 being engrossed by other matters, the project 

 of the canal could hardly be advanced toward 

 realization, though he never abandoned it. 



M. Le Pire's report stated that the level of 

 the Red Sea was 30 feet higher than that of 

 the Mediterranean; but the eminent French 

 engineer M. Bourdaloue, having in 1846 ac- 

 curately surveyed the grounds from Suez to 

 Tineh, and again from Tineh to Suez, ascer- 



