PALESTINE CANAL. 207 



territory, and Lord Dufferin had to withdraw the survey 

 for the time, and the fortunes of the scheme began to 

 wane. My friend, Mr. Henley, then became danger- 

 ously ill, and as he was an old man of seventy-three or 

 seventy-four, he made over to me the entire manage- 

 ment on his behalf 



A powerful article in The Tz7nes appeared, strongly 

 condemnatory of the proposed canal, and making a 

 point of its destroying, if ever completed, all the most 

 sacred spots of Holy Scripture — the river Jordan, the 

 Dead Sea, the city of Jericho, and other sites conse- 

 crated in history. I replied, the next day, in the same 

 paper, that if it were uii fait accompli, the canal would 

 not do the injury to sacred sentiment that the Suez 

 Canal had done, as that great work had entirely de- 

 stroyed the recorded Passage of the Israelites through 

 the Red Sea ; that many other events had taken place 

 in modern times of the same character, which had been 

 conducive to the advance of civilization. 



I may perhaps, as briefly as possible, give the general 

 outlines of the scheme. There are two forks to the Red 

 Sea, one forming the Gulf of Suez, the other the Gulf of 

 Akabah. From the latter is a remarkable depression, 

 about twenty miles from the sea, which rapidly falls 

 a depth of 13CO feet to the Dead Sea, and this depres- 

 sion is continued for the whole distance through the 

 valley of the river Jordan, and then slowly rises up to 

 the Sea of Tiberias. This valley is in parts twelve or 

 fourteen miles wide ; on the western side stands the 

 city of Jerusalem, which, at present, is 2000 feet above 

 the valley and the Dead Sea. Mr. Henley's plan was 



