The cutting of the channel through Birket-el-Ballah, which was more of a swamp than a lake, for a distance of twelve miles, though in itself a very difficult work, was comparatively easy to the excavation of Lake Menzaleh, nor were there any serious obstacles to encounter except in clearing a passage through various mounds of earth extending for a distance of 6 miles, all of which had to be removed or pierced. This difficulty, however, was overcome, after a passage had been cut, by the aid of an ingenious machine called an elevator, which lifted the soil to a height of 56 feet, and carried it along a kind of railed bridge to the places of deposit on either side of the excavated mounds. Eighteen of these elevators, with 700 boxes, were employed on that portion of the works where the banks of the canal were too high to allow the earth cut from the channel to be otherwise disposed of. One of these mounds, that of El Guisr, 61 feet in height, presented a most formidable rampart, which had to be removed in order to allow the waters of the Mediterranean to flow into the vast local depression immediately beyond it known as Lake Timsah, by Ismailia, the interior port of the canal, so named in honour of the Khedive. Here a flourishing new town has been built, surrounded by gardens growing in a fruitful soil, on a site for many centuries a bleak and sterile desert.
In the work of removing these mounds, or cutting through them, so as to form the channel of this great maritime highway, where ships of 4000 tons now safely navigate, every conceivable description of machinery suitable for the purpose had to be prepared beforehand, together with not less than 20,000 workmen, including a perfect army of Fellaheen, the usual designation of the rural population which the Government of Egypt had agreed to supply, and various tribes of Arabs and Bedouins from the countries bordering the Syrian deserts. These men were divided into gangs, and their work apportioned with great order and regularity; in each division a notice in Arabic was posted indicating the quantity of earth to be dug, and the wages paid per cubic mètre for its completion. Nor were the wants and social comforts of these men overlooked. Large encampments were provided, and arrangements made for an abundant supply of provisions and fresh water, the latter alone during some portions of the work having to be brought twenty miles, thus affording constant employment to 2000 camels, each of which carried about 50 gallons or about 500 pounds weight of fresh water. From Timsah to the Bitter Lakes the excavations through the district called Serapeum, were hardly less formidable. “Historians,” remarks Sir Daniel Lange,[336] “tell us that these lakes were in ancient times, the limit of the Gulf of Suez. One thing is certain, that the shells and fossils found here are of the same species as those in the Red Sea. The conjecture the least contradicted is, that an earthquake caused the upheaving of these parts and the sea to recede to Suez, leaving the lakes and interior basin which in process of time have evaporated.”
Partial opening of Canal April 18th, 1869.
These lakes are 16 and 9 miles in length, respectively: the first descending from the heights of Serapeum, being 34 feet below sea-level, and the second 24 feet. In both, isolated water lines of high and low tides are easily discerned, with remains of gravel, and of a horizontal bank of agglomerated fossil shells about 7 feet thick. M. de Lesseps found them completely dried up, with the exception of the lowest portion, which still retained enough humidity to make the earth moist and in some parts swampy. To fill these deep basins, water was drawn, by means of sluices from the Red Sea and from the Mediterranean; and, on the 18th of April, 1869, when these were opened in the presence of the Khedive of Egypt, the waters of the two seas, for the first time embraced each other, though it was not till the 15th of August that the great maritime canal was open throughout. The inauguration of their complete union was celebrated at Suez, and, on the 28th September, M. de Lesseps steamed from sea to sea in fifteen hours, having accomplished by his genius and unwearied industry one of the greatest engineering works the world has ever seen, and given to posterity, as a great benefactor of the human race, another imperishable name.
Finally opened by Empress Eugénie, November 17th, 1869.
On the 17th of November, this important maritime canal was formally opened for ships of all nations with much state by the Empress Eugénie of France, in the presence of numerous distinguished men from all countries.
The cost complete, was somewhat about 20,000,000l. sterling, consisting of 8,000,000l. subscribed capital, 4,000,000l. debenture stock, and 8,000,000l., in further loans and indemnities paid by the Khedive for retrocession of lands, &c.
To the traffic now engaged upon it I shall hereafter refer. In the meantime, I must trace the rise and progress of the first mercantile steam-ship company which developed the trade of England with her Indian possessions by way of the Isthmus of Suez.
FOOTNOTES:
[293] Various plans for reaching India by means of railway communication throughout have been proposed. So early as 1850, Sir R. Macdonald Stephenson brought this matter fully under the notice of the Government. In the Calcutta Review for March 1856 his views are given at length; and his article therein, “The World’s Highway,” was republished in the same year by Weale. In 1859, the same publisher brought out a pamphlet by Sir Macdonald, entitled “Railways in Turkey, &c.,” with beautifully executed plans (the most complete yet in existence) showing the course of these lines from Constantinople to Aleppo, Baghdad and Bussorah, thence along the shores of the Persian Gulf to Bunder Abbas, and thence to Kurachi, Hydrabad, in Scinde and Bombay. Sir R. Stephenson estimated the distance from London to Bombay viâ Paris, Vienna, and Constantinople at somewhere about 5200 miles. He bestowed many years’ labour on this important subject; and had hoped to make it a great international highway, constructed under the supervision of the different states interested. Though unable to overcome the difficulties such a combination would entail, the works he proposed, or others somewhat similar, are being rapidly carried into execution by different persons who have obtained concessions from the respective Governments; more than 2000 miles of the World’s Highway is already made, and when complete the journey from London to Bombay by rail would, at the rate of 30 miles an hour, be accomplished in less than seven and a half days. See also plan of route by Mr. R. H. Galloway, published by Wyld, 1875, in which the distances are given.