THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Jan. 6, 



undertaking (began by Nechos) but desisted from finishing it, on the 

 false opinion tliat, as the Red Sea is higher than Egypt, the cutting of 

 the isthmus between them would necessarily lay the country under 

 wafer. The Ptolemies disproved this error, and bv means of weirs or 

 locks, rendered the canal navigable to the sea, without obstruction or 

 inconvenience." Diodorus contirms this account. Pliny tells us that 

 Ptolemy of Egypt, the second of that name, continued the canal to the 

 bitter fountains; at this point the work was interrupted, for it was 

 found that the Red Sea lay higher than the land of Egypt by three 

 cubits (44 ft. or Sft.) : he denies that the canal was ever completed to the 

 Red Sea, but speaks of the river called Ptolemausthat passes by Arsinoe. 



With all due deference to learned commentators on this subject, we 

 are inclined to believe, with Pliny, that the canal was never carried 

 beyond the bitter fountains, and ihat the river he mentions was the 

 natural channel from this series of lakes to the Red Sea. through 

 which the waters of the Red Sea flowed towards the Mediterranean: 

 that in the days of Nechos the communication from sea to sea was 

 continuous, that it continued so long after his days, and even to the 

 time of the Ptolemy in question : that the waters of the Red Sea con- 

 tinuing to retire beyond their ancient limits, the channel from the 

 bitter lakes to the sea dwindled down from a broad expanse of waters 

 above the present head of the Red Sea, to a narrow channel or river, 

 and vi'ere eventually cut off. In confirmation of this, we find through- 

 out this depressed portion of the isthmus, a series of sea beaches, 

 heaps and ridges of accumulated sea shells, and reefs of coral, of pre- 

 cisely the same species as now belong to the Red Sea, but not to the 

 Mediterranean : these deposits are found in the bitter lakes at a very 

 slight depression below the present level of the Red Sea, and from 

 thence a series of depressions takes place throughout the whole chain 

 of communication. It would appear, also, that as the communication 

 was gradually cut oft', the labours of man were called into requisition 

 to remedy the mischief, artificial channels being made from the head 

 of the sea, much above where it now is, to the bitter lakes ; or, as 

 Pliny terms it, the Lacus Jmari, and thence from lake to lake. M. 

 Linant's report tells us, that at the bottom of the two gulfs of Suez 

 and Akaba the sea has advanced; this is positively ridiculous, and dis- 

 proved by facts: the great salt plain at the head of the sea of Suez 

 gives decisive evidence of its oceanic origin, and of having been in 

 remote periods a part of the Red Sea, and Arsinoe, once a sea-port 

 town, is now six or seven miles distant from the sea: even modern 

 Suez is removed far from the ancient site. This head of the sea is 

 not merely filling up by sands, but its formation is analagous to that of 

 deeper waters, and common to the sea, and of such is the isthmus, 

 showing throughout a gradual decrease iu the volume of waters, and 

 not merely a displacement of them. Granted that the remains of a 

 town may be found under water, this merely proves that points of land, 

 subject to the incessant motion of the waves, often give way, and be- 

 come submerged: Yambo is built on a recent reef. Most of the large 

 towns on the Arabian coast have become so barricadoed by the reel's 

 and consolidated rocks as to be unapproachable for miles ; and even 

 Macullah, at the eastern mouth of the Red Sea, is built on a recent 

 reef: the original boundaries of the Red Sea are on both sides of it, 

 numerous and strongly defined, and in some places embrace desert 

 plains many leagues in extent. .^ 



All the natural phenomena of the isthmus demonstrate that the com- 

 munication of the two seas was kept up by a current always flowing 

 from the Red Sea to the Jlediterranean, through the valleys or de- 

 pressions constituting the chain of lakes, that the hard gravel, marl 

 and sand forming the desert is such as represents the bed of the sea at 

 Suez, the whole of the extensive plain passing into Syria was at this 

 remote period covered by the sea, and formed part of the Mediterra- 

 nean. Hence it is evident that no danger is to be apprehended from 

 again opening this line of communication, eitlier of its overflowing the 

 fertile vaUeys of Egypt, or causing a rise in the Mediterranean Sea. 

 It is not on historical record that this line of communication was 

 made available to the fleets of the ancients, nor does it appear to have 

 been the desire of the Egyptians to maintain a passage for the ocean 

 waters, the sea passage being prevented by a solid dyke or wall con- 

 structed across the channel near its entrance to the gulf; on the other 

 hand, their chief aim appears to have been to make all the cultivat- 

 able portions of the land of Egypt available to its then dense population ; 

 thus the canal from Bubastis passed through the fertile Wadi, the 

 Goshen of the Israelites, to Thaubastum, where it entered the Bitter 

 iLikes, which were the natural reservoirs of both the ocean and river 

 waters, and lest the salt waters should flow over the cultivated tracks, 

 or the channel between the two seas, shuuld receive too great an im- 

 petus from the overflow of the Nile, large mounds were thrown across 

 the Wadis. 



Proceeding to the consideration of the several proposals for re- 

 opening the communication between the two seas by means of a ship 



canal or channel, we shall notice Mr. Anderson's pamphlet. This 

 gentleman after a preliminary condemnation of all previous statements 

 and speculations as superficial, crude, and erroneous, enters upon his 

 subject bv giving a somewhat lengthy extract from what he is pleased 

 to term the report of M. Linant, a French civil engineer, in the employ 

 of the Pasha of Egypt, which he obtained for a consideration : in this 

 we suspect he has bought a bargain, forthe report in question is copied 

 almost literally from the one drawn up for the French engineers, 

 and published in 1798, " Descriptiond' Ei/ijpt ." in fact, in the extract 

 in question, M. Linant observes "by many repeated observations made 

 during my numerous journeys through the Isthmus of Suez, as well as 

 from the levellings which were taken with great care during the occu- 

 pation of Egypt by the French army. I assume that the level of the 

 Red Sea is higher than that of the Mediterranean, and that it has once 

 covered the Isthmus :" there is not the most remote reason to suppose 

 that any triginometrical survey has been taken by him, or that he is 

 acquainted with the country east of the chain of lakes. In the words 

 of the French engineers M. Linant observes: — "The topographical 

 position of the place shows, that from the Red Sea to a distance of 

 22,000 metres (nearly 14 miles), the spot where the ancient canal was 

 re-dug by Amrou, or where the canal of the Prince of the Faithful still 

 exists, it is only necessary to dig this canal to a depth of 290 metres 

 (9 ft. G in.) when there would be at once established a current of water 

 towards the Mediterranean; because, at the end of this distance, you 

 enter the bed of the bitter lakes, now dry, which are there about 

 5 metres (16 ft. 4 in.) lower than the Red Sea. From thence the 

 ground becomes lower and lower, as far as the point which separates 

 the bitter lakes from the lake Themsah, where the ground for a distance 

 of about 6,000 metres (6,560 yards) is at its greatest elevation 0-50 

 (19^ in.) above the level of the sea; the soil is here sandy. Next 

 comes the basin of the lake Themsah, much lower than the Red Sea, 

 and which is covered by the waters of the Nile during the inundations. 

 The distance between this lake and the low marshy swamps of El 

 Karish, is, at the most, onlv 3,001t metres (3.280 yards), and the land 

 is not more than 1 metre (3 ft. 3 in.) higher than the Red Sea ; this 

 ground is also sandv. Leaving the basins of the lake Theinsab, and 

 passing behind thehill of Chek Amedek, near which the ancient canal 

 must have passed, we find the ground is nearly everywhere on a level 

 with the Red Sea as far as El-Karesh. From thence to Dus-el Cassah, 

 and afterwards in a direction towards Bir-el-Divietor, we follow the 

 traces of the ancient canal, in a direct line from the one sea to the 

 other, the ground being all sandy, and much lower than the Red Sea. 

 From thence to the ground which is imuidated during the floods of the 

 Nile, by the waters of the lake jMansaleh, there is again found a bed 

 or sort of excavation, or sandy valley, which may probably have been 

 the ancient canal. From thence to the entrance of Tioeh, passing 

 between Faramah and the ruins of Pelusium, the land is 9 metres 

 lower than the Red Sea." 



He proposes to begin at or near the remains of the ancient jetty, 

 made at the entrance of the canal at Suez, making two embankments 

 or piers, leaving between each an opening, which should form the 

 section of a canal to be dug: the excavation to be carried on to the 

 bitter lakes, a distance of 13.J miles, 130 ft. in breadth, and 9 ft. 9 in. 

 in depth : to clear out the land between the lake Themsah and El- 

 Karesh, a distance of 3j miles, leaving only a width of 32 ft. 6 in., a 

 dyke being run across westward of the lake to prevent the waters 

 spreading over the cultivated portions of Egypt: at the Das-el-Ballah, 

 and also the inundated lands about Pelusium, similar dykes are to be 

 constructed. He assumes that from the difference of level, the water 

 being once let in this superficial bed, and flowing with the velocity of 

 about four miles per hour, that the stream would soon scoop itself a 

 channel to any required depth. He would supply the want of a port 

 in the Pelusiac coast by a breakwater or pier, to be placed on the bar, 

 which would be naturally formed at the embouchure of the canal, and 

 concludes with estimating the expenses of excavation, embankments, 

 masonry, and pier, or breakwater, at £150,000. 



It is true that the estimate made about 50 years ago was much 

 less, but both are equally absurd, when we come to consider the mag- 

 nitude of the works required, independent of the canal. To com- 

 mence the canal at the head of the sea would have been all very well 

 in the days of Nechos, but no engineer practically acquainted with 

 the nature of the sea above Suez, would ever recommend a plan which 

 would entail the necessity either of the deepening the whole upper 

 portion of the gulf, a work of vast magnitude and expense, or other- 

 wise of carrviiig the canal through the very midst of it to deep water, 

 a mode almost equally expensive. The whole head of the sea is ex- 

 tremely shallow, its bottom consisting not only of mud and sand, as we 

 are generally led to believe, but also the same kind of clay, marl, and 

 limestone formation which distinguishes this portion of the coast. 

 Again, we very much doubt his obtaining a current oj four miles per 



