Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/456

 produced by the scene as viewed from the Port Said lighthouse, commanding as it does a panoramic prospect of the city rising above the sands, the vast harbour with its wet-docks and side basins crowded with shipping, the white piers disappearing in the distance amid the blue waters of the Mediterranean, and in the interior those huge steamers, like floating palaces, gliding away between the surrounding sand dunes as if propelled by some magic force across the isthmus.

The traffic of the Suez Canal has developed more rapidly than its constructors expected. Without the aid of tugs, sailing vessels are unable to navigate the Red Sea in either direction, either against the northern winds or against those from the south blowing directly into the gulf. But for the Indian traffic sails lave been superseded by steam; ships of a special build have even been constructed

for this inter-oceanic service through the canal and the Red Sea, and the mean tonnage continues to increase from year to year. During the year 1883, a solitary sailing vessel passed from sea to sea, whereas on an average ten steamers every day availed themselves of this route.

Hence the necessity for enlarging this navigable highway has already arisen. Certain sharp turnings will also have to be got rid of, as has already been done at El-Gisr, and several other improvements will have to be made, such as the deepening of the channel, the completion of the stone facing to the embankments where the shifting sands are too easily eroded by the wash, the construction of ports in the riverain lakes, and especially a general widening of the whole canal in order to be able to dispense with the sidings, or "shunting stations," which now |