138 Route to India. 



valley, called Wadi Tomylat, to the eastern branch of the Nile 

 at Babastis. The French, when masters of Egypt, proposed 

 to restore this canal, and also to connect it with the Mediter- 

 ranean by a branch passing from the Serapeuni northward to 

 Tineh, which is near the ancient Pelusium. It was intended 

 to be about 18 feet deep, and the expense of both works was 

 estimated only at L. 691,000. 



Nature presents extraordinary facilities for the execution of 

 such a work. The mean level of the Red Sea was found by 

 the French engineers to be nearly 80 feet above that of the 

 Mediterranean, and a tract of low land extends across the 

 isthmus, the whole of which, except a breadth of a few miles 

 near Suez, is actually many feet under the mean level of the 

 Red Sea. This sea would, therefore, serve as an inexhausti- 

 ble reservoir to the canal, and the descent of 30 feet on a line 

 of 75 or 80 miles, would give the current of salt-water a suffi- 

 cient force to excavate and scour a navigable channel in the 

 Mediterranean at Tineh. 



Captain Vetch proposes that a canal should be carried from 

 the head of the Red Sea direct to Tineh, without communicat- 

 ing with the Nile, and he has marked out three lines. The first, 

 No. 1 in the map, runs right northward from Suez nearly in a 

 straight line. The second. No. 2, passes through the Bitter 

 Lakes to the Serapeum, and thence to Tineh. The third 

 passes through the Bitter Lakes and the Lake of Themsah, and 

 thence to Tineh. The difi^erence in the length of the three 

 lines would be trifling, but it would require a detailed survey to 

 determine which was preferable. He proposes that the canal 

 should be 21 feet deep, 96 feet wide at bottom, and 180 at the 

 water-line at top. He calculates that the fall of 30 feet would 

 give the current a velocity rather exceeding two miles per 

 hour, and he estimates the cost of the work at L. 2,000,000 

 sterling. 



Such a canal would be productive of immense advantages. 

 First, it would save five or six days on the transit through 

 Egypt. The ship, instead of stopping at Alexandria, would 

 proceed 200 miles farther east to Tineh. This would consume 

 one day ; another would carry her from Tineh to Suez through 

 the canal. At present passengers and goods are unshipped at 



