MARITIME CANALS EN" EUROPE. 593 



wMch appears to have once existed between tlie Palus Tritonis, 

 or Sebcha el Nandid, and the Syrtis Parva. As we do not know 

 the southern or eastern limits of this depression, we can not de- 

 termine the area which would thus be covered with water, but it 

 would certainly be many thousands of square miles in extent, and 

 the climatic effects would doubtless be sensible through a consid- 

 erable part of IS^orthern Africa, and possibly even in Europe. 

 The rapid evaporation would require a constant influx of water 

 from the current through the Straits of Gibraltar. 



Maritime Ccmals in Ewrope. 



A great navigable cut across the peninsula of Jutland, form- 

 ing a new and short route between the North Sea and the Baltic, 

 has been proposed, but wiU not probably be attempted. The mo- 

 tives for opening such a communication are perhaps rather to be 

 found in political than in geographical or even commercial con- 

 siderations, but it would not be without an important bearing on 

 the material interests of all the countries to whose peoples it 

 would furnish new facihties for communication and trajQSc. 



The North Holland canal between the Holder and the port of 

 Amsterdam, a distance of fifty miles, executed a few years since 

 at a cost of $5,000,000, and with dimensions admitting the pass- 

 age of a frigate, was a magnificent enterprise, but it is thrown 

 quite into the shade by the shorter channel lately constructed for 

 bringing that important city into almost direct communication 

 with the North Sea, and thus restoring to it something at least of 



sufficient supply of water to counterbalance the evaporation, deserves consider- 

 ation. 



Since the above paragraph was written, this project, generally called the 

 Bondaire scheme, from the name of one of its most distinguished advocates, 

 has been examined at considerable length by Desor — La Foret Vierge et Le 

 Sahara, p. 131. It is now receiving the serious attention of the French Gov- 

 ernment. We run no risk in predicting that, if new surveys shall show it to 

 be practicable, it will almost certainly be carried into effect. As a means of 

 communicating with and controlling the unruly tribes of the desert its value 

 can hardly be over-estimated, and as a harbor of refuge for the commercial 

 marine of France, and, more especially, as a naval station and port of con- 

 struction not less unassailable than Gibraltar itself, its importance is incalcula- 

 ble. It win indeed go far towards reaUzing the idea of the first Napoleon 

 La Mediterranee est un lacfran^ais. 



