THE 



CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S 



JOURNAL. 



SHIP CANAL COMMUNICATION ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 

 OF SUEZ. 



Inquiry into the means of establishing Steam Navigation. By James 

 Vetch, Capt. R.K., F.R.S. Pelham Richardson, Cornhill. 



The Sues Navigable Canal for accelerated commxmication with India. 

 By JIr. Clarkson. British and Foreign Agency Office, 57, Lincoln's Ina 

 Fields. 



Observations on the Red Sea and Mediterranean. By Arthur Anderson. 

 Smith, Elder & Co., Cornhill. 



The attenlion of the scientific world has, for many years past, been 

 directed to the design first sketched out by Napoleon Buonaparte, of 

 connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, by means of a navi- 

 gable canal, and many endeavours have been used to influence the 

 Pasha of Egypt to undertake the task single-handed : but engaged in 

 protracted and expensive wars, which had the effect of desolating 

 many of the most fertile provinces of his dominions, and the crippled 

 stale of his finances, have precluded the possibility of his engagiiig in 

 this magnificent undertaking, however really desirous he may have been 

 to compass this ambitious project. Since the cessation of war, with 

 the loss of Syria, his sources of revenue have suffered a still further 

 diminution, being now barely £4,000,000 sterling per annum; and we 

 are therefore not surprised to hear, that within this few weeks past, 

 he has wholly abandoned all ideas of carrying it out in person: but, at 

 the same time, expresses his wish that the project should be taken up 

 by European capitalists, who, provided his interests are duly consi- 

 dered, will receive from him all the necessary assistance and protec- 

 tion. Urged on by this consideration, the desire to shorten the dis- 

 tance between Great Britain and her immense territorial possessions 

 in the East, and to facilitate commerce, several projects have from 

 time to time been put forward with a view of engaging the attention 

 of the British Government and of the monied classes, emulous to 

 employ their capital in all important undertakings of acknowledged 

 utility and likely to prove profitable. A very excellent article in the 

 Foreign and Quarterly Reiiew, has been followed by two able pamphlets 

 just published, one of them by Mr. Anderson, the other by Captain 

 James Vetch. It is not our intention, however, to follow either of 

 these writers through their several statements, but merely to remove 

 some erroneous impressions entertained by all of them, and to give a 

 general idea of the question under consideration, with our own 

 opinions thereon. 



Pelusium, from whence it is proposed to conduct the canal, lays a 

 little to the east of the Pelusiac branch, and, according to Strabo, 

 about two and a half miles from the sea; its circumference mea- 

 sured the same distance, and it was guarded not only by massive 

 walls, but also by extensive morasses on every side ; being situ- 

 ated in the midst of a naked level, between the sand desert pass- 

 ing into Syria, the sea, and the morasses, which now form a part of 

 the lake Mansaleh. Its ruins may now be seen about two miles from 



No. 77.— Januaby, 1841. 



the sea, the land having gained seven miles and a half upon the Medi- 

 terranean since that period. The Pelusian branch, which was of con- 

 siderable magnitude in those days, is little more than a wide stream 

 of mud as it crosses the arid plain fr.'m the lake Mansaleh to the sea. 

 On Its banks stands the fortress of Tineh, built by the Turks, and said 

 to be a place of considerable strength. This branch of the Nile is 

 now known as the Canal of Abu Manejji ; it is the second branch 

 issuing from the Damietta arm, which it leaves at about six miles 

 below Cairo: it then passes by Bibers and Tell Bastah (Bubastes) and 

 at length enters the sea, much contracted in width, and almost choked 

 up with mud. 



The lake El Mansaleh is formed in the low lands near the sea, which 

 extend from the Pelusiac branch nearly to the Rosetta branch. It 

 receives the Canal of Ashmin-erromman, which formerly passed 

 through the territory of El Mansaleh, and then branched out into two 

 divisions, one of which ran northward, and the other, making a bend, 

 flowed into the lake of Tennis: this canal, from its uniform depth, is 

 thought to be the Mendesian arm of the Nile ; and the lake Boheireto 

 el-zar has been considered the Taiiitic branch. "This lake," says 

 Sic.ird, " begins half-league to the eastward of Damietta, and ends at 

 the castle of Tineh, anciently Pelusium. It is twenty-twe leagues in 

 length from east to west, and five or broad from north to south. Its 

 bottom is muddy and full of weeds. It is seldom more than five feet 

 deep, and is separated from the sea by a strip of sand, at most a league 

 in width; it communicates with the sea by three mouths, that of 

 Tineh the easternmost, Omm-ne-ferrej, and Dibeh. In summer, during 

 the inundation, its waters are sweet, during the rest of the year they 

 are salt. This lake contains many islands, most of them uncultivated, 

 those of Matareyyeh near El Mansaleh are the most populous: two 

 others are covered with the ruins of ancient cities. The bed of this 

 lake is several feet below the level of bcth seas, the depth of mud and 

 sand being very considerable; the original bed on which they rest 

 being compact gravel, and calcareous matter, similar to the general 

 formations of Egypt. The Pelusiac branch was considered the most 

 important one, being denominated the ktxj and strength of Egypt. 



Nechos, the son of Psammetichus, and the Pharaoh Necho of Scrip- 

 ture, was the first who attempted to open a communication between 

 the Nile and the Red Sea, which Darius, Ki:ig of Persia, after- 

 wards continued to the bitter lakes, from thence it is said to have 

 been carried to the Red Sea by Ptolemy Philadelphus; it commenced 

 from the Pelusiac branch, and extended as far as Arsinoe, now called 

 Aggeroud, or Ajeroud : the length of this canal, says Herodotus, is 

 equal to four days' voyage, and it is wide enough to admit four tirenies 

 abreast: the water enters it from the Nile, a little above the city 

 Bubastes ; it terminated in the Red Sea, not far from Patumos, an 

 Arabian town. In the prosecution of this work under Nechus, it is 

 said that one hundred thousand Egyptians perished, nor is this to be 

 wondered at, when we consider the baneful and pestilential marshes 

 through which it had to be carried, and the inevitable long exposure 

 to the nightly dews, and burning heat by day, to which the workmen 

 were alternately subjected: this writer says, "Darius carried ou the 



2 



