ENGINEERING. 39! 



SHIP-CANAL PROJECT ON THE SEINE. 



The preliminary arrangements are being made at Havre, 

 at the time of this writing, for the construction of a maritime 

 canal from that port, touching at Harfleur, and joining the 

 Seine at Tancarville, a point on the river about sixty miles 

 below Rouen. This improvement is projected for the pur- 

 pose of obviating the dangers of the navigation of the Low- 

 er Seine by reason of fogs, the shifting sands, and the vio- 

 lence of the tidal wave. According to description, the canal 

 will consist of a single section of about seventeen miles in 

 length, the western outlet of which will be in the Eure Dock 

 at Havre. The plans adopted contemplate a canal with a 

 minimum breadth of twenty-five meters. Plans have also 

 been elaborated for the deepening of the channel of the 

 Seine between Paris and Rouen to 3.20 meters; and the 

 canal between Havre and Harfleur is designed to have a 

 depth of 4.5 meters, to accommodate the passage of vessels 

 of considerable draught of water. The work is estimated 

 to cost about 21,000,000 francs, which will include all ac- 

 cessory works, the planting of the banks with trees, the con- 

 struction of a branch five hundred meters long to connect 

 the port of Harfleur with the canal, and a basin of five hun- 

 dred by sixty meters at Havre. We make the above state- 

 ments on the authority of SaioarcVs. 



THE ALGERIAN INLAND SEA. 



This project, which received notice in our last year's Rec- 

 ord, appears to be further from realization than ever. Last 

 year it appears to have been the subject of considerable dis- 

 cussion in French scientific circles, and to have aroused some 

 very serious objections to its advisability. The objectors 

 are MM. Naudin, Dumas, and Daubree, and their objections 

 are based upon sanitary grounds. Their arguments as quot- 

 ed in the London Engineer are as follows : To fill with salt- 

 water the shallow basins of the region which it is proposed 

 to convert into an inland sea would be equivalent to repro- 

 ducing in Algeria all the evil features of a series of marshes. 

 The deepest portion would, it is admitted, not exceed eighty 

 feet in depth, and the whole coast-line would be so shallow 

 as to be but little else than a marshy bank, which, under 



