140 Route to India. 



Estimate of Eocpense. 



42,504,000 cubic yards of excavation, at 8d., . L.1,416,800 



Masonry in G4 gauged ribs and sundry works, . 60,000 



Works at the two extremities, in piers, dredging, &c., 200,000 



L. 1,676,800 



Contingencies, one-tenth, 167,680 



Sundry works not enumerated, one-tenth, . . 167,680 



Total, L.2,012,160 



From the above it will be seen that the cost will amount to about two 

 millions sterling ; and it would be difficult and fruitless to attempt any 

 nearer estimate, until we are in possession of more detailed and precise 

 data. No doubt, if the section of the canal was diminished, the cost 

 might be reduced most materially ; but my opinion is, that the size as- 

 sumed will be required to give the sea river the momentum required to 

 preserve its mouth navigable, and to admit with freedom the traffic which 

 may be expected to pass between the two seas. 



In the foregoing calculations, it has been- assumed, that the straight 

 line across the desert would meet, with no serious natural obstacles ; 

 but if such should be found to exist, and we are driven westward 

 and obliged to adopt the basin of the Bitter Lakes as a portion of 

 the navigable channel, I should prefer running the line from Sera- 

 peum straight to Tineh, by project No. 2, a distance of forty-seven miles, 

 which, together with thirteen and a half miles between the Bitter Lakes 

 and Suez, gives sixty and a half miles of canal for construction. But 

 this, I fear, would effect no saving in the estimate, as, from the great 

 evaporation and absorption of the water of the Bitter Lake when filled, 

 the channel of thirteen and a half miles from Suez would have to be 

 nearly doubled in capacity to maintain the lake at the required level, 

 and to preserve the salt water river flowing out of it at a constant and 

 equable velocity ; and with such an arrangement the lake might become 

 the medium of absorbing the tides of the Red Sea, and of furnishing a 

 stream issuing with a constant level and velocity. But I am strongly 

 impressed with the idea that the basins of the lakes and lagoons lying 

 between Suez and Lake Menzaleh have, from offering an apparent faci- 

 lity, drawn all former attempts at connecting the two seas from a truly 

 permanent, effective, straight, and controllable channel, to one amongst 

 shifting sands and unequal influences of several kinds, which have ended 

 in defeating the object sought for. 



In an economical point of view, it would not be desirable to convert 

 the basin of the Bitter Lakes into a sheet of water. Its surface lies be- 



