200 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



the mud of Lake Mensaleh and the entrance to El- 

 Guisr, to pass through the sand banks of the desert, 

 and form workshops twenty-five leagues away from 

 any village, in a land which had no inhabitants, no 

 water, no roads, to fill up the basin of the Bitter 

 Lakes, and to prevent the sand from silting up in the 

 canal. 



Yet all that was accomplished, at what a cost in 

 labour and perseverance I well know ; and I maintain 

 that the Panama will be easier to make, easier to com- 

 plete, and easier to keep up than the Suez Canal. 



Nothing has occurred since 1879 to alter the aspect 

 of affairs from a material point of view, and it is not 

 for me to discuss here the motives of the eleventh 

 hour opposition, raised in order to prevent the success 

 of the subscription which, after the vote of the Con- 

 gress, it seemed to me opportune to open. 



I will merely repeat what I said at the Academie 

 des Sciences : 



" The line from Colon to Panama can easily, accord- 

 ing to the latest data of science, be utilised for the 

 cutting of a salt-water canal on one level in preference 

 to any other route necessitating locks fed with fresh 

 water. The experience of the Suez Canal has shown 

 that, in order to ensure a considerable amount of 

 transit navigation, you must have a maritime canal as 

 free as a natural Bosphorus, and not a river canal, 

 subject to stoppages more or less lengthy, and only fit 

 for internal navigation." 



