Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

157 страница из 418

The distance from Port Saïd to Suez is 100 miles. The width of the Canal, where the banks are low, is about 328 feet, and in deep cuttings 190 feet. The deep channel is marked with buoys. The mole at the Port Saïd (Mediterranean) end of the Canal stretches out into the sea for over half a mile, near the Damietta branch of the Nile. This helps to form an artificial harbour, and checks the mud deposits which might otherwise choke the entrance. It cost as much as half a million. In the Canal there are recesses—shall we call them sidings, as on a railway?—where vessels can enter and allow others to pass.

The scenery, we must confess, is generally monotonous. At Ismaïlia, however, a town has arisen where there are charming gardens. We are told that “it seems only necessary to pour the waters of the Nile on the desert to produce a soil which will grow anything to perfection.” Here the Viceroy built a temporary palace, and M. de Lesseps himself has a châlet. At Suez itself the scenery is charming. From the height, on which is placed another of the Khedive’s residences, there is a magnificent panorama in view. In the foreground is the town, harbour, roadstead, and mouth of the Canal. To the right are the mountain heights—Gebel Attákah—which hem in the Red Sea. To the left are the rosy peaks of Mount Sinai, so familiar to all Biblical students as the spot where the great Jewish Law was given by God to Moses; and between the two, the deep, deep blue of the Gulf. Near Suez are the so-called “Wells of Moses,” natural springs of rather brackish water, surrounded by tamarisks and date-palms, which help to form an oasis—a pic-nic ground—in the desert. Dean Stanley has termed the spot “the Richmond of Suez.”