This work, while in progress, and all concerning it, cannot fail to be of interest. From persons well acquainted with the geography of Dutch gap, through which the canal is being cut, we have learned some facts which will enable the reader to understand the character and magnitude of the work Butler has undertaken. The isthmus known as Dutch gap, which connects "Farrar's island" with the main land or north bank of the river, is exactly two hundred yards across, being eighty feet high on the western side, and sloping down to the river on the east. The channel of the river runs against the west side, striking it obliquely. Just off the shore at this point the water is from twelve to fifteen feet deep. The channel being on this side will greatly aid Butler should he ever complete his canal, as had it been on the middle or on the opposite side of the river he would have been obliged to construct a huge breakwater to turn the stream into the canal. We learn he is cutting diagonally through the isthmus, beginning a hundred yards below its narrowest point, and designing to come out at the point where the channel strikes the bank. This will give his canal, if ever finished, a length of about three hundred yards.

As we stated on a previous occasion, we have reason to believe that the canal proper has been begun, the cut to the water's edge, which is a necessary preliminary, having not yet been more than two-thirds completed.

We give much of our space this morning to extracts from Yankee war correspondents describing the fights of last Thursday on the north side of James river and southwest of Petersburg. We recur to the subject here with a particular purpose.--The correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer gives an account of the operations of the Eighteenth corps, which, as far as regards the white divisions — Marston's and Hickman's — is more truthful than we could have expected from a Yankee; but when he comes to tell of the "Third (colored) division," (his prolix narrative concerning which we regret our space prevents us publishing) he conceals the truth by both lying and pretending ignorance. He says Weitzel, having determined to attack our works on the Williamsburg road, sent the Third (colored) division across the York River railroad to the Nine-Mile road with orders to turn our extreme left; that the Third (colored) reached the Nine-Mile road and stormed a portion of our works and captured two guns, which, for some "unknown cause, were not brought off," when the division retreated in obedience to orders from Weitzel. We are happy to be able to give the correct history of this affair, after which the reason why the guns were not brought off by the negroes will not be unknown. The negro division, on striking the Nine-Mile road at White's old tavern, six miles below the city, marched up in this direction, and finding our outer works wholly unoccupied, marched into them. They had, however, not been in possession five minutes before the brave and vigilant General Gary rushed down upon them and drove them out in great disorder, killing a large number. Possibly at this moment they may have received Weitzel's order to retreat; but if they did, it was wholly superfluous. They were already doing the most rapid retreating that they, or any other negroes, are capable of. This is why they did not bring off any guns, and this is the whole story of the fight on the Nine-Mile road. It is proper to add, for the benefit of the reader unacquainted with the country, that the Williamsburg and Nine-Mile roads meet at Seven Pines, the former leaving the city through Rocketts and over Fulton's Hill, and the latter over Union Hill. At that point, where the fight just spoken of took place, the two roads are not more than a mile and a half apart.

Passengers by last evening's train report that not a shot was fired up to the time of the leaving of the cars for Richmond.

A number of deserters have lately come into our lines, embracing every branch of the Federal service — infantrymen, cavalrymen and marines. The former report that the Yankee army was exceedingly demoralized on their recent retreat from the Boydton plankroad, Grant's official statements to the contrary notwithstanding. They also state that every available team with the army was used to carry away such of the wounded as could not walk, and that many of them were so crowded as to render their condition anything but comfortable.

It seems that a most indecorous mistake occurred among the Yankees during Grant's grand reconnaissance. One brigade of Yankees, lately arrived in the Army of the James, and unacquainted with localities, became separated from the rest of the troops in the advance on the Boydton plankroad.--They wandered around for some time in the hopes of meeting with their comrades. Suddenly, however, they came out upon a railroad — the Southside railroad, of course,--the very road they were looking for. They set to work upon it in a trice, and enthusiastically tore up about a mile and a half of it. Suddenly they hear the whistle of the train. They wait for it eagerly, ready to pounce upon the unwary passengers and satiate themselves with plunder; but the engineer sees danger ahead, and stops the locomotive with a shriek. The Yankees had torn up a mile and a half of Grant's new railroad, just laid down from the vicinity of Petersburg to City Point.

It is said that, in General Mahone's affair of Sunday last, some of the Yankees were so surprised that they were taken by the arm and informed that they were prisoners before they were aware of the proximity of Confederates.

The Yankee correspondents from Grant's army are more busily engaged now in smoothing over its reverse than in describing the fighting. A telegram, dated at City Point on the 29th, says:

The Second corps, in their charge on the plankroad, drove the rebels from their works on the south side of the run and across the bridge, of which they held possession until ordered to withdraw. On the advance of the Fifth corps, they moved on the south side of the run; and the road being very crooked in this vicinity, by keeping close to it, there was a gap between its left and the right of the Second corps.--The enemy took advantage of this, and massing in the woods under cover, made a most determined assault on the right of the Second division of the Second corps, evidently with the intention of capturing the entire force on the right. Their charge, for a very short time, was a success; but our men rallied, charged in turn, and driving the rebels back, cut off the greatest part of Anderson's brigade, of Hill's corps. The number of prisoners thus taken here was about four hundred, including many officers.

Meantime, the Fifth corps had reached the enemy's works on their front and become wholly engaged. The loss here was not as heavy as in the Second corps. Darkness approaching, and fit being deemed unsafe to occupy so extended a line with strong works in front, and exposed to flank attacks from cavalry, orders were issued to withdraw about two miles, which was done without loss. During the engagement the enemy drove our men from two guns; but before they could be removed, our men charged and retook them.

The loss of the enemy cannot be stated, but is thought to be about as heavy as our own in killed and wounded, while then loss in prisoners is much larger than ours. We took about five hundred altogether during the day. General Grant and staff were present during the entire day, and, in company with General Meade, witnessed the various movements.

During Thursday night the rebels made an assault on our works south of where the mine was sprung, but were driven back with considerable loss. Near the same place, a party from the First division of the Second corps made a dash on a rebel fort and captured it, taking a colonel, a major, a captain and a lieutenant, with twenty men, prisoners, and bringing off two guns. Our picket line was advanced here for some distance, and our men still hold their new ground.

The correspondent of the Tribune with Butler's army, who described the grand movement of the armies on the morning of the assault, thus draws in his hours:

The Eighteenth corps, meanwhile, accompanied by Kauts's cavalry, moved out toward the Williamsburg road, and there engaged the enemy, late in the afternoon, with varying success. --Holman's brigade of colored troops succeeded in carrying one of the enemy's redoubts and capturing the guns, while Fairchild's and Cullum's brigades were roughly handled in endeavoring to take a strong position held by the enemy directly on the Williamsburg road, in the neighborhood of Seven Pines. Darkness came on too soon to permit us to avail ourselves of the advantage gained by the capture of the redoubt on

The latest accounts from General Price report him in Jasper county, Missouri, on the 28th, with only two pieces of artillery. A telegram from St. Louis, dated the 30th, says:

A letter from St. Louis, to the New York Tribune, thus sums up General Price's campaign:

The results of this invasion are fearful, when we count the cost to the Union men of this State, but the damage will ultimately fall on the secessionists. The guerrillas who remain in Missouri are chiefly deserters, principally from the cavalry commands of John B. Clark and Joe Shelby, who are Missourian.--These men tole their officers that they intended to stay in Missouri. After the capture of Glasgow, Clark and Shelby took as many of these men over the river to Price as would go, but not less than three thousand are now in North Missouri, playing guerrilla and cutting up all kinds of mischief

More atrocities and outrages following the rebels has been received signed by the as follows: rillas entered the Knowles, were Two Burned is of

The the General Hood's miles of Decatur:

Hood attacked Decatur yesterday, last night this morning, and was handsomely repulsed time. Granger captured four pieces of artillery, spiked two, and took one hundred and thirty prisoners.

The rebels are retreating from Decatur, but are reported to have passed the Tennessee at the mouth of the Cypress creek.

Rebel prisoners and contrabands report that Beauregard and Hood are both with the rebel army.

Hood, in a general order, assures his men that Sherman's whole army does not exceed thirty-five thousand men.

The Louisville Journal has a rumor that Sherman has evacuated Atlanta.

A telegram from St., Louis, of the 30th, says that Little Rock advices, of the 20th, say that, on the 18th, fifteen thousand to twenty thousand rebels were crossing the Saline river northward, just below Boston, twenty-five miles south of Little Rock. It adds:

The Memphis Bulletin of the 27th instant says it is reported that the rebel leaders of West Tennessee are exceedingly active. They have established railroad and telegraphic communication between Corinth and Jackson, and are conscripting every person able to bear arms, including old men, and sending agents to every part of West Tennessee, outside our lines, for sheep, stock of all kinds, goods, money, and everything that can be of service to them.

The rebel Governor Harris has been in consultation with Forrest and other rebel leaders, and unless the Union authorities prevent it, a session of the rebel Legislature will be held at some point in West Tennessee, so that it may go abroad that they have permanently secured that portion of the State.

The Herald's correspondent gives a full account of the repulses their cavalry met with in their attempted reconnaissances up the Luray Valley. Two paragraphs will put the reader in possession of all the truth in the letter:

Fires were built and the men rested until the morning of the 26th. General Powell arrived late on the night previous, bringing nearly the whole of the remainder of the division with him. The following morning, the 26th, another attack was made upon the enemy's entrenched position, but it was found too strong to be taken by the force we had in the field and by cavalry alone. The fight which ensued on the occasion of the last attack was principally confined to the artillery of the contending parties. The result of these operations goes to show that the enemy has a very strong force in the Luray Valley, in a very strongly entrenched position.

Gold was quoted in New York on Monday at 221½--a rise of three cents.

The United States steamer Ticonderoga was refused permission to coal at Grenada (British West India) Islands.

An official message was received in Buffalo from Canada, Sunday afternoon, stating that the rebels in Canada were prepared to make an immediate raid on Buffalo. The military were under arms in that city that night, and two armed tugs patroled the harbor.

A Confederate attack on Beverly, in Randolph county, Virginia, is reported to have been defeated.

It is reported that Donohue_one of the persons charged with fraud in connection with the votes of the New York soldiers, has been convicted by the military commission in Baltimore and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Lincoln is managing this election his own way.

Nevada has been admitted into the Yankee "Union" as a State.

The Democratic procession in Philadelphia, on Saturday night, fought people generally on the route. One Republican was killed.

Captain Camp, a quartermaster, made a speech in Washington for McClellan on Saturday night, and was ordered to the front for it on Sunday morning.

The Washington Chronicle (official) says the New York soldiers will be furloughed to go home and vote — of course it means Republican voters.

General Neal has been ordered to West Virginia on important service, which the Yankees say is to check any designs Breckinridge may have of moving through from East Tennessee.

A Chinese Joss House, or temple for heathen worship, was dedicated in San Francisco on the 23d of August. It cost eighty thousand dollars. A band of tapestry, embroidered with feathers and gold and silver thread, which adorns the place, cost one hundred and fifty dollars per yard; and the whole building blases with gold leaf and tinsel. The priests shout, screech, yell, groan, spin, around amid the racket of gongs, drums and fiddles, and smoke opium until they are quite drunk, when others relieve them. The finger-nails of the chief priest are actually longer than his fingers, and are twisted like an sugar.

Schenectady (New York) boasts a novelty in journalism. It has a daily paper with two editors, one Republican and the other Democrat, who have a page of every day's paper. The second page is for McClellan and the third for Lincoln, and spirited controversies are constantly going on within the limits of a single sheet.

A member of the Fenian Brotherhood, in Chicago, having claimed British protection to screen himself from the draft, was expelled from the Brotherhood.

The last report of the commissioner of internal revenue shows that the income of the United States Government from internal taxes is about $18,000,000 a month, or nearly $800,000,000 a year. Its expenses are fifty times that.

The keeper of one of the Cincinnati station-houses fell asleep last Sunday night; some passing acamp possessed himself of the keys and liberated all the prisoners.

An ingenious Pennsylvanian has invented a machine for coal-mining, which weighs two hundred pounds, costs three hundred dollars, and will do the work of twenty men.

Governor Morton, of Indiana, is about to take the stump in New York.

Maine papers state that Thomas S. Lang, of Vassalboro', has an order from Emperor Napoleon the Third for four spare of snatched horses.

A sting of a honey has caused the death of a young lady of Jamesville, Wisconsin.

Two Confederates, charged with being spies, arrived in Boston on Wednesday to commence an imprisonment of five years in Fort Warren.

A man in Hagerstown, Indiana, recently ate a snake, and died in consequence the next day.