Nov. 25, 1869| 
NAL ORE 
Tift 
deposits from the periodical floods, and that the land of 
Egypt is supposed to have been at one time a gulf stretching 
from the Mediterranean towards the Mountains of the 
Moon, but which became silted up by slow accumulations. 
We may now form a clear notion of the region through 
ISMAILIA Ew 
pase gone — §LAKE TIMSAH 
pen Gime wa 
SECTION AT A 
es aS 
MAP AND SECTION OF THE SUEZ CANAL 
which the Canal has been cut. A low, sandy shore is 
generally washed by a shallow sea. At Southend the pier 
extends for a mile and a quarter into the sea before 
meeting depth enough for an ordinary steamer ; and the 
long piers at Lowestoft and other places on our eastern 
coast present themselves as illustrations in point. So 
shallow is the sea off Port Said, that the mouth of the 
harbour had to be commenced two miles from the shore, 
for there only did the required depth of twenty-six feet of 
water begin. Less than this will keep out vessels of the 
largest class. The western pier, the one against which 
the whole weight of the powerful current falls, projects 
more than two miles into the sea; the one to the east is 
half a mile shorter. These breakwaters have been built 
up of concrete blocks weighing twenty tons each, made on 
the spot from the sand dredged out of the harbour mixed 
with hydraulic lime brought from Marseilles. Spaces 
were left between the blocks to be filled up by the seadrift ; 
but though there have been great deposits of sand and 
mud outside the breakwater, the filling up of the gaps has 
not been so speedy as was anticipated, and heaps of sand 
which drifted through have had to be dredged out again, 
Of course, while money for payment is forthcoming, any 
number of dredging-machines may be employed ; but can 
that process be depended on when enthusiasm shall have 
evaporated, and there is nothing but the prosaic work of 
letting ships in or out to animate the promoters? Will it 
always be possible to prevent the formation of such soft 
banks as that on which the “Prince Consort” and the 
“Royal Oak” grounded on their arrival to take part in 
the opening of the Canal ? 
There is something instructive in the operations which 
have so diligently been carried on at the mouth of the 
Tyne, where a passage through the bar is essential. To 
maintain this passage, eighteen feet deep only, more than 
four million tons of sand must be dredged out every year, 
This has been going on for ten years or more, and the 
channel is not yet secure. 
Not only the harbour of Port Said, but the greater part 
of the Canal itself, has been formed by dredging; and this, 
in soft ground or through the sludge of Lake Menzaleh, 
was comparatively easy work. The mud raised from the 
bottom was spread along each margin of the newly- 
scooped-out channel; but it would not stay there, and 
for a time the prospect of maintaining an open channel 
seemed as hopeless as George Stephenson’s first attempt 
to carry the Liverpool and Manchester railway across 
Chat Moss. No sooner was the Menzaleh mud deposited 
in its new position, than it either slipped back into its 
former bed, or squeezed the soft soil on which it lay into 
the channel. The dredgers were in despair over a task in 
which no progress could be made, until one day one of 
the labourers showed that if, instead of great heaps, a thin 
layer of the mud were spread and left to harden in the 
sun, it would not slip back. So layer by layer the mud 
was spread, the banks were built up, and a way for the 
Canal was opened through such slime as was used in 
ancient days for the making of bricks. 
In the hard ground the “ bondagers” dug with pick and 
spade, and carried away the loosened soil in baskets. 
But when they were supplemented by European labourers, 
powerful excavating machinery was employed, and the 
line of works presented as busy a spectacle as an English 
railway in course of construction, or the main drainage 
works in their progress towards Barking Creek across the 
Essex marshes. The slopes of the cuttings were alive 
with labourers and machines, by which the excavated 
earth was lifted and run off to a distance. The power of 
the digging-machines may be judged of from the fact that 
some of them could dig out 80,000 cubic metres of soil 
every month, and that on one occasion the quantity was 
120,000. A dozen or two of machines working at this 
rate would soon make a big gap through the high grounds 
before them. 
The lakes of water on the Isthmus may be regarded as 
Nature’s contribution towards the success of the Canal ; 
for in them the only labour required is to dredge a channel 
which will give a depth of twenty-eight feet. Moreover, 
they may be usedas ports. This is especially the case with 
Lake Timsah, on the shore of which stands the newly-built 
