590 CANALS TO THE DEAD SEA. 



of tlie free passage of the water through them, in either direction^ 

 as the prevaiHng winds should impel it, they would exercise a 

 certain influence on the coast currents, which are important as 

 hydrographical elements, and also as producing abrasion of the 

 coast and a drift at the bottom of seas, and hence they would be 

 entitled to rank higher than simply as artificial means of transit. 

 It has been thought practicable to cut a canal across the penin- 

 sula of GaUipoli from the outlet of the Sea of Marmora into the 

 Gulf of Saros. It may be doubted whether the mechanical diifi- 

 culties of such a work would not be found insuperable ; but when 

 Constantinople shall recover the important political and com- 

 mercial rank which naturally belongs to her, the execution of such 

 a canal will be recommended by strong reasons of mihtary expedi- 

 ency, as well as by the interests of trade. An open channel across 

 the peninsula would divert a portion of the water which now flows 

 through the Dardanelles, diminishing the rapidity of that power- 

 ful current, and thus in part remove the difficulties which obstruct 

 the navigation of the strait. It would considerably abridge the 

 distance by water between Constantinople and the northern coast 

 of the -^gean, and it would have the important advantage of 

 obHging an enemy to maintain two blockading fleets instead of 

 one. 



Ccmals communicatmg with Dead Sea, 



The project of Captain Allen for opening a new route to India 

 by cuts between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, and between 

 the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, presents many interesting con- 

 siderations.* The hypsometrical observations of Bertou, Roth 

 and others, render it highly probable, if not certain, that the 

 watershed in the Wadi-el-Araba between the Dead Sea and the 

 Red Sea is not less than three hundred feet above the mean level 

 of the latter, and if this is so, the execution of a canal from the 

 one sea to the other is quite out of the question. But the summit 

 level between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, near Jezreel, is 

 believed to be little, if at all, more than one hundred feet above 

 the sea, and the distance is so short that the cutting of a channel 

 through the dividing ridge would probably be found by no means 



* T?ic Dead Sea a new Route to India. 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1855. 



