62 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



terranean with those of the Eed Sea. The construc- 

 tion of the former is now more problematical than it 

 was some years ago, the surface of the land having 

 been found to be difficult, with many alternations of 

 hill and plain. Circumstances may hereafter, in the 

 pressure of commercial necessity, compel the work to 

 be done, but at present interested speculators are con- 

 tent with patched routes, partly by rail and partly by 

 water, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The country 

 which forms the Isthmus of Suez is understood to be 

 much more favourable for the construction of a canal, 

 and that operation many are hopeful will be carried to 

 maturity. 



u ' If it be so, it will not be the first time that the 

 isthmus has been channelled. A canal connecting the 

 Eed Sea with an arm of the Nile was commenced 

 about 2,500 years ago, and was (according to Hero- 

 dotus) completed by Darius. It is now as dry as the 

 desert, although numerous traces of its ancient direc- 

 tion still appear in different places. The increased 

 traffic with China in recent years, and the gold dis- 

 coveries, and consequent expansion of commerce in 

 Australia, have naturally caused the attention of in- 

 quiring minds to be directed upon any available means 

 of shortening the distance between Europe and those 

 distant lands ; and, inasmuch as the projected canal 

 across the American isthmus of Darien gradually fell 

 into a state of quietude, it occurred to the mind of 

 M. Lesseps, a French engineer, that the sandy plains 



