CHAPTER XXVI.

THROUGH THE SUEZ CANAL.

CAIRO, February 12, 1890.

At 9 P.M., on the 10th instant, the big steamer _Khedive_ anchored at Suez, the Red Sea entrance to the canal; and I was much interested in watching the engineers making steam connections to a large dynamo on deck. The connections were made by copper pipes and flange joints. In half an hour they were ready. Captain Loggin gave the signal, and the stately vessel moved on at the rate of six miles an hour towards Port Said on the Mediterranean. The canal is 87 miles long, and when completed was 72 feet wide and 26 feet deep, but two years ago it was decided to enlarge it to 120 feet wide, 27 feet 8 inches deep. They are now at work on the enlargement, as I saw four immense dredgers lying in the canal near Suez, and was informed that thousands of men could be seen during the day at work all along the route.

I stationed myself on the upper deck at 9.30 P.M., and remained there all night with the kind and pleasant captain for my only companion, only leaving when we were nearing Ismaïlia at six in the morning; and I was amply rewarded by sights such as I never expect to see again.

The five thousand candle-power electric light, with a Mangin reflector, spread the rays out fanlike, and illuminated the canal and vicinity for half a mile ahead and several hundred feet wide, so that the smallest thing on the land or in the water could be seen. The electric rays illuminated the water so that the white-painted buoys, of which you could often see three or four at a time, seemed to be lighted from the inside, as if made of translucent golden porcelain, and suspended in mid-air. The white sand on the banks of the canal might be readily mistaken for snow, and was in one place piled up fifty feet high, for a long distance, and the general effect was singularly weird, as the great steamer moved majestically on. When we reached the small Bitter Water Lake, the buoys were on stands fifteen feet high, out of water, looking as if they were made of silver, the pear-shaped domes like illuminated mosques. Once where there was an opening in the sand-bank, the light illuminated a hill some distance off, and it seemed as if I were looking upon a great city, with its mosques, minarets, churches, and buildings all being destroyed by fire. Several times, when approaching huge dredging machines, the electric light seemed to transform them into beautiful flower boats on which fairies might be dancing. As we entered the large Bitter Lake, the electric lights were put out and the vessel guided by a pilot increased her speed.

The tide rises seven feet at Suez, and forces the water up the canal to the Bitter Lakes, which operate like a safety valve, distributing the water and returning it when the tide recedes.

The Mediterranean being a tideless sea, the water runs naturally through the canal to the Bitter Lakes. Most of the commerce of the East passes through the canal, instead of around the Cape of Good Hope, as formerly. In 1887 there passed through the canal 3,137 vessels, of which 2,330 were British, and only three American. I know of no greater illustration of the fallibility of human judgment than that the English opposed the building of this canal. Lord Palmerston said it could not be built, and if done, would never pay, or be any good to commerce; and now seventy-five per cent. of the tonnage passing through it is British, and it is of immense importance to them, both politically and in a business way. But for the persistent energy of M. de Lesseps, it is safe to say the canal would not have been built for many years, if ever.

The average passages through the canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea have been eighteen hours, Captain Loggin having made the shortest in fifteen hours; but when the enlargement is completed, so that vessels may make an uninterrupted passage each way, the time may be reduced to twelve hours. The stock of the company has paid as high as twenty-one per cent., and I was informed that our steamer, the _Khedive_, had several hundred cases of silk on board, and that she would pay about seven thousand dollars transit charges. Every steamer passing through the canal now makes use of the electric light; those not having a dynamo on board hire one at Port Said in Suez for ten pounds sterling per trip, including two men to run it.