On a Junction of the Red Sea lUitb flu Mediterranean. 129 

 end that ought to be propofed at prefent. They cannot, 

 therefore, be aflumed as models or helps for any new work 

 of the fame kind ; which, however, as will here be feen, 

 could be executed with much eafe and fimplicity, fuppofing 

 the undertakers had entire and peaceable pofTeffion of the 

 ifthmns and weftern coaft of the Arabic gulph, as well as 

 of the courf'e of the Nile, and all the intermediate country 

 advancing a great way towards the fotith. 



Without giving credit to a pretended higher level of the 

 Red Sea than of the Mediterranean, which is not pro- 

 bable, we muft, according to the account of all travellers, 

 admit there periodical tides and accidental elevations, 

 amounting from five to fifteen feet ) and this is fufficient to 

 prevent every plan of a communication between thefe two 

 feas, confu-ueled on a perfect level, and always navigable 

 for the largeft vefTels, fince an influx of waves fo great 

 would ravage it from the one end to the other, ahd certainly 

 be followed by an ebbing fo low as to render the Mediterra- 

 nean higher and deliruclive in its turn. But what would 

 oblige the undertakers to renounce this talk is the impoffi- 

 bility of digging a long and continued bed, to the depth of 

 twentv feet below the level of the two adjacent feas, in a 

 diftricl: which no doubt rifes much more above that level, 

 and which is faid to confift entirely of hills and downs of ex- 

 ceedingly moveable fand, where the confTruclion and pre- 

 fervation of a canal would be like the labour of Penelope. 



We muft not, therefore, think of joining thefe two feas but 

 by a river navigation for barks or boats drawing fix or eight 

 feet of water at moft, and between two ports, fuch as Suez 

 on the one fide and Grand Cairo, Foftat or Boulac on the 

 other, which feeih to have been deftiried for that purpofe, 

 fince their direel diltance is only twenty-five leagues, and 

 fince the eafrern branch of the Nile below Cairo is as deep 

 as the fea itfelf at Damictta, Zan, &c. 



But it is neceflary not only to give the new canal the leaft 

 length, but alfo the fmalleft elevation poffible. But accord 



Vol. I. K ing 



