ENGINEERING. 



307 



extensive scale. In Belgium and other coun- 

 tries harbor improvements are in progress. 

 The proposed tunnel under the strait of Mes- 

 sina will have a total length of 13,546 metres, 

 of which 4,688 metres lie under the strait. The 

 estimated cost is $14,200,000. A bold scheme 

 for a bridge across the strait, with spans of 

 over 1,000 yards, also finds advocates. 



Enlargement of the Snez Canal. The question 

 of widening or duplicating the Suez canal to 

 accommodate the traffic which has outgrown 

 its capacity, is still in the phase of political 

 controversy, and in its politico-commercial as- 

 pect is treated in the article on the SUEZ 

 CANAL. The opposition which seeks to nul- 

 lify the franchises and abrogate the concessions 

 of the Suez Canal Company, on such fallacious 

 grounds as that the exclusive right to construct 

 "a" canal meant "one" canal, or that, if 

 other companies were debarred, the Egyptian 

 Government could make a new canal, on the 

 arbitrary plea that Said Pasha had no sover- 

 eign right to grant privileges over an interna- 

 tional highway, or the simple argument of 

 might, finds its animus in the desire of British 

 ship-owners to compel the company to reduce 

 the rate of toll allowed in the concessions, just 

 as in the early period of its operation they 

 compelled the directors of the canal to adopt 

 the Mporsom system, which deducts the space 

 occupied by engines, fuel, etc., in rating the 

 capacity of vessels, instead of levying ten francs 

 a ton on the real capacity of a ship. M. de 

 Lesseps was less alarmed at the threats of an 

 alternative canal, from the fact that his canal 

 occupies the Thalweg of the isthmus. 



Of the different schemes to take the im- 

 provement out of the hands of the Suez Canal 

 Company that were proposed, those which 

 took no account of the rights of the company 

 were naturally of a bold and visionary charac- 

 ter. The project of a fresh-water canal from 

 Alexandria to Suez by way of Cairo was rec- 

 ommended on the ground of its combining 

 irrigation with navigation. It was formerly 

 entertained by the Khedive Ismail. But, aside 

 from its cost, it was out of the question to 

 expose the great and increasing commerce of 

 "le Suez route to the delays and accidents of 

 long canal, whose navigability depends on 

 workings of a system of locks. A still 

 lore adventurous scheme is that proposed by 

 ren. Gordon, to create a new passage from the 

 [editerranean to the Red sea by flooding the 

 depressed valley of the Jordan. This scheme 

 was broached twenty years ago, and was ob- 

 jected to not only on religious grounds, but 

 from the stand-point of engineering science. 

 Calculations were made to show that it would 

 take a full century for a stream 90 feet broad 

 and 15 feet deep to fill the depression, owing 

 to the extraordinary evaporation and absorp- 

 tion in that region. Gen. Gordon, after study- 

 ing the natural conditions of the Jordan val- 

 ley, came to the conclusion that by cutting a 

 canal 60 yards wide and 3 yards deep from 



Haifa, the gulf of Acre, to Zenn, 25 miles, and 

 another from the head of the gulf of Akabah 

 to Ain Gerundel, 40 miles, the intermediate 

 depression, 325 cubic miles in extent, will be 

 flooded in nine months' time. The inland sea, 

 thus created, filling the Jordan bottom and 

 Dead sea basin from Lake Huleh to Ain Ge- 

 rundel, with the two short cuttings, which 

 could be dug at a cost of $55,000,000, includ- 

 ing port works at Herifa, would furnish a nav- 

 igable water-way through which vessels could 

 steam at full speed in a minimum depth of 40 

 feet of water. It would be scarcely wider 

 than the Dead sea, and would submerge only 

 a small portion of the fertile lands of the Jor- 

 dan valley, and none of the important sites of 

 religious interest. Many other advantages, com- 

 mercial, political, and sanitary, are adduced by 

 the advocates of this scheme. 



The alternative scheme, of a second canal 

 constructed across the isthmus with English 

 capital, to compete with the Lesseps canal, 

 would have serious financial and technical 

 problems to solve, after overriding the legal 

 difficulty and braving the danger of a rupture 

 with the French Government. Shut out from 

 the Great and Little Bitter lakes and Lake 

 Timsah, a canal of sufficient section to suit the 

 present requirements of navigation would re- 

 quire three times as much excavation as the 

 Suez canal did, and without the forced labor 

 which M. de Lesseps had at his command. 

 The Suez Company would be unwilling to con- 

 vey the plant and supplies to the different 

 points along the line, there would also be 

 two new entrance-ports to create at an enor- 

 mous cost. 



As relates to the improvement of the Suez 

 canal, the practical problem in engineering re- 

 solved itself into the question whether it would 

 be better to enlarge the present canal or exca- 

 vate a new one by the side of it. The second 

 proposal had the recommendation of greatly 

 diminishing the risk of a total stoppage of the 

 route, of obviating the necessity of stopping 

 at sidings to allow other vessels to pass, and 

 also the danger of collision between vessels go- 

 ing in opposite directions ; on the other hand, 

 it had the disadvantage of requiring more labor 

 and outlay, and of increasing the working ex- 

 penses for supervision and administration, and 

 for repairs. 



The Works Committee of the Suez Canal 

 Company, in January, 1883, adopted, the fol- 

 lowing programme of improvements which 

 were expected to double the present capacity of 

 the canal : 



Rectification of the west bank of the channel of 

 the outer port of Port Said ; formation of a new basin 

 at Port Said -widening of the canal in the passage 

 of the small Bitter lakes ; widening of the canal be- 

 tween Suez and Kilometre 152 ; doubling of the Is- 

 mailia station ; embankment of Kantara station, and 

 of the station at Kilometre 133 ; rectification of the 

 eastern curve of Tirnsah station ; also of the southern 

 curve of the small lakes ; also of the northern curve 

 of El Guisr ; also of the curve of Toussoum ; widen- 



