714 



SUEZ CANAL. 



vided with habitations, food, and medical as- 

 sistance, and while in hospital receive half 

 their pay when at work. This clause, which, 

 while it imposed an obligation, conferred also 

 a benefit on the company for quick dispatch in 

 the work, and even economy, was objected to 

 by the Sultan, and in 1859 the fellahs were 

 withdrawn. This involved the company in 

 no small embarrassment, as well as loss of time 

 and money for procuring an adequate number 

 of workmen from other countries. The Sultan 

 refused also to confirm the clause enabling the 

 company to sell or let any portion of their 

 property in Egypt. 



The withdrawal of the fellah labor and other 

 wrongs heaped on the company, who were at 

 one time even ordered to leave the country, re- 

 sulted in an almost total cessation of the works 

 for two years. But they manfully stood their 

 ground, and, after a hard struggle, finally con- 

 quered all opposition. They have even a suffi- 

 cient number of native laborers, who flock to 

 the company for work on their own motion, 

 induced by good 'wages and punctual payment. 



As to the losses suffered by the company on 

 the two above-mentioned points, and others, 

 their complaints had at last the effect that the 

 viceroy remitted their settlement to the arbi- 

 tration of the French Emperor, who in July, 

 1864, decided as follows : 1. That the conces- 

 sions of November, 1854, and January, 1856, 

 had the form of a contract, and were binding 

 on both parties. 2. That, as, by the withdrawal 

 of the fellah labor, the cost of the works would 

 be increased, the viceroy should pay an indem- 

 nity of 1,200,000 sterling on that account. 

 8. That the company should cede to the vice- 

 roy all their fresh-water canals, reserving only 

 the right of passage through them ; that the 

 viceroy should pay 400,000 representing the 

 cost of the construction of the canals, and 

 240,000 as compensation for the tolls which 

 the company thereby relinquished. 4. That 

 the company should retain only such lands 

 along the line of the Maritime Canal as might 

 be necessary for the care and maintenance of 

 the said canal. 5. That the company should 

 cede to the viceroy their title to all lands capa- 

 ble of cultivation by means of irrigation from 

 the fresh-water canals, and for which the vice- 

 roy should pay 1,200,000. The total sum 

 awarded as indemnity to the company thus 

 amounted to 3,360,000. 



But, in the face of such obstacles and dis- 

 couragements as would appear capable of stop- 

 ping the course of any enterprise, M. de Les- 

 seps and his engineers have persistently fought 

 their way and progressed in the mighty work, 

 and finally brought it, as it is at present, to the 

 point of its completion. 



To enter into details concerning the variety, 

 magnitude, and difficulty of the works on and 

 for the canal, and the several kinds and power 

 of the machinery used, would occupy too much 

 space. ^ We lay before the reader the two cuts 

 exhibiting the surface representation of the 



canal, and its longitudinal section showing the 

 progress of the work up to October 15, 1868, 

 confining ourselves to the bare mention of some 

 few of its principal features. 



The whole course of the canal, from the 

 Mediterranean to the Ked Sea, is one hundred 

 miles, though the distance ' in a direct line 

 would be about 70 miles. For more than 60 

 miles it runs through the intervening lakes 

 Menzaleh, Ballah, Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes, 

 embankments having been formed on each side 

 of it during its course through the two first- 

 named lakes. Its width has been fixed at 328 

 feet in those portions where the land-level is 

 low. The width at the base is 246 feet, and the 

 depth of water 26 feet. These dimensions, repre- 

 senting those of the canal itself, convey but lit- 

 tle idea of the amount of excavation that had to 

 be carried out in many places where it traverses 

 elevated plateaus, which entailed cuttings of 

 great depth, as the longitudinal section shows. 



On the northern extremity of the canal, 

 where it debouches on the Mediterranean, a 

 port has been constructed, named Port Said, 

 consisting of two breakwaters, or moles, 2,726 

 and 1,962 yards long respectively, embracing 

 a triangular area of about 550 acres, a safe 

 harbor and easy to make. They are 26 yards 

 at the base, 6 yards at the summit, and 12 

 yards in height, and formed of huge blocks of 

 concrete, measuring 12 cubic yards, and weigh- 

 ing 22 tons each, prepared and made on the 

 spot, by machines, from the harbor-dredgings 

 and one-third hydraulic lime. The moles are 

 visible at about 12 miles' distance. A writer 

 says : u When we observe the scale on which 

 Port Said now exists, no other portion of the 

 vast engineering works along the line of the 

 canal appears more strongly to exemplify the 

 talent and indomitable zeal that have succeeded 

 in so effectual a manner in surmounting those 

 natural obstacles which here presented them- 

 selves." Besides being a port, properly so 

 called, Port Said is now also a town regularly 

 laid out in squares and streets, containing al- 

 ready 10,000 inhabitants, churches, mosques, 

 hospitals and all the adjuncts of a thriving sea- 

 port town, the Sisters of Charity being also 

 there to minister peace to patients in the hos- 

 pitals, and educate the children of this large 

 French colony. 



On the north of Lake Timsah, about the mid- 

 dle of the whole course of the canal, "stands 

 Ismailia (named after Ismail Pacha), a flourish- 

 ing French town, full of life and activity, a real 

 oasis in the desert. It contains a population 

 of five thousand inhabitants, and is divided 

 into French, Greek, and Arab quarters." It is, 

 as it were, the headquarters of the administra- 

 tion of the company. 



At its southern extremity the canal runs into 

 the Eed Sea, where, after entering the sea, its 

 embouchure gradually widens to about 300 

 yards, and the depth in this portion is to be 27 

 " feet. Here stands Suez, which, to use the same 

 writer's words, " no more than four or five 



