April 11, 1859.] .PIM ON THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. 185 



all idea of joining the two seas by an open cut was abandoned. It 

 may be interesting to state that the cost of the investigation 

 amounted to no less a sum than 4500?., which was paid by the 

 gentlemen I have named, to whom doubtless the credit is due of 

 setting at rest the much-vexed question of difference of level be- 

 tween the Mediterranean and Ked Sea. Since 1847 the Isthmus 

 has been twice re-levelled, each time with the same result as at 

 first. 



For several years the Suez Canal project remained closed and 

 abandoned, but the idea of overcoming a barrier apparently so in- 

 significant as the Isthmus was not permitted to rest. M. Talabot 

 himself suggested a plan by which he hoped to lessen some of the 

 diificulties. Messrs. Barrault likewise submitted proposals, and 

 both these projects I shall briefly detail. 



M. Talabot proposed to start from a point about 6 miles below 

 Suez, where deep water is found near the shore; to follow the 

 " Ouadee Toumilat," and proceed to within a short distance of Cairo, 

 to cross the Nile above the Barrage without making use of the stream 

 itself; thence to take the direction of Alexandria, where the canal 

 would terminate in the old harbour. The length of the canal would 

 be about 250 miles, breadth 328 feet, and depth 26 feet, and it would 

 be fed from the Nile. 



M. Talabot proposed to cross the Nile b}^ an aqueduct, the surface 

 of the water in which was to be raised 40 feet above the level of the 

 high water of the Nile, and 60 feet above the low water level. It 

 was to be 3500 feet in length, and reached by four locks at each end, 

 by which the summit level could be attained by the largest ships. 



This aqueduct would indeed be one of the wonders of the world. 

 M. Talabot was quite alive to the difiiculties of the scheme, but he 

 off'ers the proposal as preferable to a direct canal from Suez to 

 Pelusium. 



The plan of Messrs. Barrault is to proceed from Suez to Lake 

 Mensalah in a direct line, then to turn in a direction parallel to the 

 sea for a distance of more than 100 miles, into the neio harbour at 

 Alexandria. Instead of crossing the Nile above the Barrage, it will 

 be seen that they prefer carrying their canal across the mouths of 

 the Damietta and Eosetta branches. Neither of these schemes offers 

 a solution of the problem, for independently of the enormous expense 

 and many engineering difficulties frankly admitted by the projectors, 

 local and political causes present such serious impediments as to be 

 of themselves decisive against either proposal. 



In spite of the conclusions arrived at, after the most careful inves- 

 tigations of the eminent engineers mentioned above, that the direct 



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