SUEZ 



SUFFOLK 



78S 



substantial mole was constructed. The making of 

 the canal was facilitated by the existence of three 

 or four valleys or depressions (formerly lakes), 

 which, when the water reached them, became con- 

 verted into lakes. Immediately south of Port 



Map of Suez Canal. 



Said the canal crosses Lake Menzaleh (28 miles 

 long); and three more Lake Ballah, Lake Timsah 

 (5 miles long), and the Bitter Lakes (23 miles) 

 are traversed to the south of it. The highest point 

 or elevation that was cut through does not exceed 

 50 feet above sea-level. At intervals of 5 or 6 

 miles ' sidings ' or side-basins are provided to 

 enable vessels to pass one another. At the end 

 of a dozen years the traffic had increased so enor- 

 mously that a second canal began to be talked 

 about ; and in 1886 the task of widening, and also 

 deepening, the existing canal was commenced. By 

 1890 the canal had been deepened to 28 feet, and 

 widened between Port Said and the Bitter Lakes 

 to 144 feet, and from the Bitter Lakes to Suez to 

 213 feet. 



The increasing use of screw-propellers in steam- 

 vessels, with the enormous shortening of sea- voyages 

 to India, China, and Australia effected by the canal, 

 rapidly increased the tonnage of vessels using this 

 route. The subjoined table gives the salient par- 

 ticulars : 



ReoeiptR. 

 206,373 

 984,375 

 1,629,577 

 2,488,297 

 2,680,436 

 8,124,149 

 8,024,280 



Both in respect of tonnage and of the number 

 of vessels Great Britain greatly exceeds all other 

 nations put together ; in 1896, 2162 of the vessels 

 were British, their tonnage reaching the aggregate 

 of 8,057,706 tons. Since 1886 the time of making 

 the transit through the canal has been greatly 

 accelerated. In that year a vessel took on an 

 average thirty-six hours to get through ; but in 

 1898 the average time of passage was fifteen hours 

 thirty-six minutes. Moreover, since 1st March 

 1887 the electric light has been used to light the 

 way during the night. The first year that this 

 adjunct was in operation it was used by 395 vessels 

 put of 3137 ; in the year 1896, 3217 out of 3409 used 

 it. The cost of getting through by electric light 

 amounts to about 10 for each vessel. Besides- 

 100,000 founders' shares, the original capital of the 

 company consisted of 400,000 shares of 20 each, 

 making a sum total of 8,000,000. Of these shares 

 176,602, which belonged to the khedive, were pur- 

 chased from him by Beaconsfleld for the British 

 government in 1875 for the sum of 3,976,582, 

 although he had mortgaged the interest on them 

 up to the year 1894. Since the formation of the 

 company additional obligations have been incurred 

 to the amount of 8, 1 10,567. All net earnings that 

 remain after 5 per cent, interest has been paid are 

 divided in the following proportions : 71 per cent. 

 as dividend to the shareholders, 15 per cent, to the 

 khedive, 10 per cent, to the holders of founders' 

 shares, 2 per cent, to the managing directors, and 

 2 per cent, to the company's employees. In 1898 

 the net profits thus divided amounted to 1,600,923. 

 The widening of the canal is being carried out. 



See F. de Lesseps, Le Canal de Suez (Paris, 1875), 

 and Lettres, Journal, et Documents a I'ffistoire du Canal 

 de Suez ( 5 vols. Paris, 1881 ) ; Journal of the Statistical 

 Society (June 1887); Suez Canal, Returns of Shipping 

 and Tonnage, 1888-91 ( Lond. 1891 ) ; D. A. Cameron, 

 Egypt in the Nineteenth Century (1898) ; and other recent 

 books on Egypt (q.v.). 



Sllllioni. name given to the exhalations of hot 

 sulphurous vapours, which are common in volcanic 

 regions. See VOLCANOES. 



Suffocation. See ASPHYXIA, RESPIRATION, 

 STRANGULATION. 



Suffolk, the easternmost county of England, is 

 bounded on the N. by Norfolk, E. by the German 

 Ocean, S. by Essex, and W. by Cambridgeshire. 

 In length from east to west it measures 57 miles, 

 and the mean breadth from north to south is about 

 30 miles. Area, 1475 sq. m. ; pop. (1801) 210,431 ; 

 (1831) 296,317; (1861) 337,070; (1891) 371,235. 

 Though no hills of any notable character rise 

 within its confines, Suffolk is not by any means flat. 

 Bordering on the seacoast, it is low and skirted by 

 banks of shingle, except near Lowestoft and South- 

 wold, and again at Dimwich and Felixstowe, which 

 all rest on sandstone cliffs ; adjoining and running 

 parallel with these last stretches an almost con- 

 tinuous series of light sandy heath-lands, glorious 

 in summer with gorse and heather ; and inland 

 the country is undulating, well watered, and for 

 the most part well wooded, the scenery in places 

 e.g. at Yoxford, aptly called the garden of Suffolk, 

 and in the vale of the Gipping being very pic- 

 turesque. More than two-thirds of the county 

 consists of heavy land, a stiff clay prevailing in 

 Mid (or as it is locally termed 'High') Suffolk, 

 whilst the western part lies upon chalk, terminat- 

 ing at its north-west corner with a tract of peaty 

 fen-land. The Waveney, Aide, Deben, Orwell, 

 and Stour, all flowing eastwards, are the principal 

 rivers ; with the exception of one branch-line, the 

 railways are all worked by the Great Eastern 

 Company. The Suffolk crag, or white crag, is one 

 of the divisions of the British Pliocene System 



