64 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



" dredging " a sea before investing eight or ten millions 

 sterling in the formation of a ship canal capable of 

 accommodating vessels which might by possibility be 

 stopped at Suez or somewhere in the long navigation 

 that ensues before the Straits of Bab-el-Mendeb are 

 left behind. To ascertain the actual state of the vari- 

 able Eed Sea should be a chief object of preliminary 

 survey, for its navigation is as yet comparatively 

 obscure, although the port of Suez is the point of 

 communication between Europe and India in connec- 

 tion with the Overland Mail 



" c The resolution moved by Mr. R P. King, after 

 stating that the projected ship canal would be of the 

 greatest importance to the commerce of the whole 

 world, added, "And would afford facilities which 

 no railway could present." This is a cut at a rival 

 scheme for shortening the route to India, and for 

 generally facilitating the intercourse of Europe with 

 Asia, which has been devised, we believe, by Colonel 

 Chesney, who proposes to carry a railway from the 

 Mediterranean into the valley of the Euphrates, to 

 follow the course of that river south-eastward, and 

 thence proceed to Hindostan by way of Persia and 

 Belochistan. It really does appear that such an 

 undertaking would be more formidable than cutting 

 a canal 92 miles long through sand and sandstone. 

 Much, however, as already said, depends upon the 

 character of the navigation of the Bed Sea its winds, 

 its coral reefs, Ac, ; and if it be correct that M. Lee- 



