Current Topics.

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 9047, 20 April 1898, Page 1

Current Topics.

A Grkat Canal.

A London cable ij^H yesterday's issa^H

reported thdt Bvm^H sia has " decided upon " the constraj^H tion of the great Baltic-Black Se^H Canal, which is to bisect th? cootim^^H of Europe in a line between the Gulf <a^| Riga and the port of Kherson If tibi^H means that the work is to be denmt*jrjj^| put in hand then there should not V^H much further delay, for the aurven^H are said to be already completed Av^| cording to details published in Lond^^H the new waterway is to be 1080 mil^^H loqg, 21Tff wide at the top, and 117 l^H the bottom, with v depth of 28£ft|^| which will enable the largest war yesaM^| to pass through The canal begins «^H Riga, and follows the course of tbi»^| river Duna as far as Dnnnberg. Her*j^| the great excavations will begin whidk^l will cross the watershed and conneet^| the canal with Lepel, on the Beresincv^J That tiver will be utilised as far as itftjH junction with the Dnieper, when the|^| latter will'be followed to its moutlC^B Of the total leugth of the canal, 875.9 miles will be canalised rivers,'leariw^f only 125 miles to be dug. The canu|H ia to be so strong y built that it will a| allow vessels to steam six-knots an.'fl hour. At chat speed, seeing that thefJH canal is to-be lighted throughout with'.!^B electricity, the whole journey will onlj'll take 144 hours, or say a week. Th&jfl cost is put at £20.060,000, and'thtS time four years both estimates which « are sure to be exceeded, The enter* fl prise is a very great one, and if carried Jh out may have very great political Jl results. It was. the completion of th« Jfl Baltic and North Sea Canal which 9 made Russia agree to the French:9 Alliance. .:fl

A Romance of Btbok.

A nsw mystery has"9 been discovered in, connection with the'^M far from unromaß- 9

tic same of Byron. In an article, ~£ "At Byron's Grave," in the British '% Weekly, it is related that many yeari",-' after Byron's body had be>m buried,2 at Hucknall Torbard, a stranger cum " r and rented a small cottage—"removed } Borne ten years ago—hard by the J; churchyard:—"Nobody knew her; ?! she lived alone ; and we may be sure \ the gossips of the time had in her, * -' favourite exercise for their tongues. . She is described as a thin, handsome 1 iady, who always wore white garments \ Aad. from her little window, which ; commanded an easy view of the I; .chancel, she was often seen by night A «nd day gazing earnestly at the plaoe : ; where the poet rests, as if keeping a & ceaseless vigil over the tomb. , . . i She often requested the sexton to bury _; her, when she died, .close under the ' wall of Byron's tomb,' and the old : sexton 'says he does not know why he did not carry out her wish, for be i might have laid her close to the wall '■ instead of 30 feet away." Will the forthcoming works on Byrou rereal ■' the identity of the • White Lady *? *' '- 1