THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 255 



" We had to consider whether the running out to 

 sea of a double jetty thirty feet deep, with a canal 

 between broad enough and deep enough to admit the 

 passage of the largest vessels, would present insur- 

 mountable difficulties. We came to the conclusion 

 that there was nothing to prevent the establishment 

 of these jetties, adducing in proof the Cherbourg Jetty, 

 which is more than 2| miles long, and goes down 

 nearly 50 feet into the water; the Plymouth Mole, 

 which is nearly seven-eighths of a mile long, and is 36 

 feet deep ; and that of Lion Bay, Cape of Good Hope, 

 which is 5 miles long and more than 50 feet deep. 



" All of these works have been attended with diffi- 

 culties, arising from the force of the current and the 

 depth of the water, which would not occur here. It 

 has been asserted that the coast at Pelusium was sub- 

 ject to the alluvial deposits of the Nile, and that in 

 these parts the sea was charged with such thick mud 

 that it would soon block up the entrance to the canal. 

 But we know as a matter of fact that Pelusium, or 

 rather its ruins, is the same distance from the coast 

 that it was in Strabo's time, 50 years B.C., that is to 

 say, rather less than two English miles. 



" On the Suez side the process of silting up has 

 got to be a very slow one, for when the plan of the 

 harbour was taken in 1847 the soundings corresponded 

 almost exactly to those of the French expedition in 

 1799, and both of these tally with Commodore 

 Moresby's chart of the Bed Sea. 



