256 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



" So that all that need be done on this side of the 

 isthmus would be to make two jetties, to form a canal, 

 and take it up the gulf to a point where there would 

 be sufficient water for navigation. 



"The roadstead of Suez is protected from all winds, 

 except from the south-east, acd the ill-effects of this 

 might be guarded against by prolonging the eastern 

 jetty to the south. Moreover, even as it is, all the 

 vessels which come into the Suez roads are quite 

 safe in bad weather, and the corvette store-ship of 

 the East India Company, which has been there 

 for two years and a-half, has never sustained any 

 damage. 



" Having thus ascertained the possibility of making 

 a canal through the isthmus, it is essential to show 

 Egypt can be put in communication with the mari- 

 time canal. Near Lake Timsah the longitudinal de- 

 pression of the isthmus is joined, at right angles, by 

 another and not less remarkable valley, which is called 

 in Arabic Ouadee-Tomilat. It is at present an unculti- 

 vated desert, but this desert was formerly the fertile 

 land of Goshen, and the valley receives, throughout its 

 whole extent, the overflow of the Nile's lateral 

 canals, and seems thus to furnish a natural line of 

 communication between that stream and the maritime 

 canal. 



" Our proposal is to cut through this valley a canal 

 which would serve not only to irrigate the soil, but 

 for internal navigation, while it would also be useful 



