Boute to India* 139 



Alexandria, put into boats and carried to Edfah by the Canal 

 Mahmoudieh, transferred at Edfah to a steam-boat, which car- 

 ries them up the Nile to Cairo, landed there, and then con- 

 veyed on the backs of camels 90 miles through the desert to 

 Suez, where they embark in the steamer which carries them to 

 Bombay. All this trouble and expense would be saved. But 

 the second and greater advantage is, that the route by Egypt, 

 which, owing to the inconveniences just mentioned, is only used 

 for passengers and dispatches, would then be a great, perhaps 

 the principal, thoroughfare for merchandise to and from India. 

 Sailing vessels could be taken through the canal by tugs, and 

 the Bombay steamers would receive coal by the Mediterranean, 

 at a much cheaper rate. 



We subjoin Captain Vetch's estimate, with his concluding 

 remarks, and strongly recommend the pamphlet to public 

 attention. 



Estimate of the Expense of constructing a Canal between the two Seas, on Line 

 of Project No. 1, distance being seventy-five miles. 



Canal 21 feet deep, 96 feet wide at bottom, and 180 wide at top at water 

 line : giving a sectional area of 322 square yards. Supposing the ground 

 to be nearly level, and supposing it subject to slight depressions on the 

 line connecting the surface of the two seas equal in amount to the slight 

 elevations above the same line, then the quantity of excavation would 

 also amount to 322 cubic yards in each yard of distance ; and, from all 

 accounts, the surface of the country must be pretty nearly as we have 

 assumed it. The soil is light, yet, by several accounts, tenacious enough 

 to stand without walling ; and the absorption of water by the ground 

 and the air being so great as to leave dry hollows from 20 to 54 feet be- 

 low the level of the Red Sea, there is little danger or expense to be ap- 

 prehended from the influx of water by springs or otherwise ; and, under 

 these conditions of the country, I should consider 8d. per cubic yard as 

 a fair price for the excavation ; for, though wages in the Levant maybe 

 only one-fifth of what they are in England, I do not expect that more 

 work would be performed for the same money. 



The total length of the canal being 75 miles, or 132,000 yards, the to- 

 tal quantity of excavation would be 42,504,000 cubic yards. 



