254 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



merchandise. It seems certain that from Suez to Pe- 

 lusium, the excavation will be made in loose earth, 

 which can be moved by hand down to the water-line, 

 and with dredges down to the bed of the canal. 



u Some people are afraid that a canal cut through 

 the isthmus would soon silt up, and would, therefore, 

 be so costly to maintain, that it would have to be 

 abandoned after it had been made. This objection is 

 refuted by what we saw in December and January ; 

 for we could trace the encampments of the engineers 

 who were at work in 1847, and, to go back many 

 centuries, we may add that the banks of the ancient 

 canal of the Pharaohs and the Caliphs are still visible. 



"No doubt the tropical rains of twelve centuries 

 have formed ravines through these banks, and in 

 places have filled them, but nowhere are they buried 

 beneath the sand, and there are still to be seen upon 

 the surface vestiges of antiquity several thousand 

 years old. It is only upon one part of the line of 

 the canal, as we approach Lake Timsah, that the 

 sand banks appear to undergo changes of shape 

 rather than of position. All the sand hills which 

 form a chain between the extremity of the lake and 

 Pelusium have long since been settled permanently in 

 their places by the different plants which have grown 

 up beneath the influence of the moisture and the heat. 



"The question which remained to be solved was 

 that as to the mouth of the canal, both at the Mediter- 

 ranean and the Eed Sea end. 



