THE SUEZ CANAL. 3G9 



for this twofold purpose. Should the riverain tracts of the delta ever be enclosed 

 by a circular artery, this canal will probably be utilised exclusively for irrigation 

 and the local traffic. 



The firman granting a concession to pierce the isthmus directly from sea to sea, 

 was at last signed in the year 1854. While signing this document, the Sultan 

 was himself incredulous as to the possibility of executing the work, and even 

 among the engineers engaged on the vast undertaking, many were wanting in the 

 confidence required to stimulate their efforts. But Ferdinand de Lesseps, in 

 whose favour the firnian had been signed, was a man of strong faith and tenacious 

 will. He was discouraged neither by financial difficulties, nor by faint-hearted 

 friends, nor yet by the secret or avowed opposition of adversaries. Amongst 

 these adversaries was the British Government, fearing the opening of a direct 

 route to India, of which it was not sure of always holding the key. Yet it was 

 compelled in its turn to acknowledge itself vanquished, and on November 17th, 

 1869, a whole fleet of steamers followed in gay procession, bearers of the Khedive's 

 invited guests from Port Said to Lake Timsah. 



Fifteen years had sufficed to complete this colossal undertaking. But to bring 

 it to a successful issue, new engineering methods and new mechanical contrivances 

 had to be devised. A sum of nearly £19,000,000, nearly half subscribed in 

 France, had been expended, apart from the numerous substantial services con- 

 tributed by the Egyptian Government, such as concessions of land, the erection 

 of lighthouses, harbour dredgings, pecuniary advances without interest, gangs of 

 labourers under the corvée system, representing at least a capital of some 

 £4,000,000. The number of natives engaged on the works averaged about twenty 

 thousand. 



This great highway, a veritable marine strait, which is visited by sharks and 

 cetaceans, and where are now intermingled the various flora and fauna of the 

 Mediterranean and Red Sea, presents dimensions which at the time seemed 

 prodigious, but which are already acknowledged to be inadequate. The canal, 

 which is 98 miles long from sea to sea, and from 200 to 330 feet wide between the 

 banks, has a depth nowhere less than 26 feet, and in some places nearly 28 feet. 

 Dredges are constantly engaged, clearing out the sand and mud, which the wash 

 of passing steamers causes to accumulate on the bottom. Without including these 

 subsequent dredgings, which amount to about 21,000,000 cubic feet yearly, the 

 excavations represent a mass estimated at 2,910 millions of cubic feet, equal to a 

 pyramid 1,100 yards square and 830 feet high. 



From a mere lagoon. Lake Timsah, that is, of the " Crocodiles," from which, 

 however, these animals had long disappeared, has been transformed to an inland 

 sea. The basin of the Bitter Lakes has also received from the Red Sea a volume 

 estimated at seventy billions of cubic feet ; the vast salt-beds formerly occupying 

 this depression are being gradually dissolved under the influence of the currents 

 setting alternately north and south. The canal presents a superb spectacle, 

 especially at El-Gisr, between the two lines of dunes rising on either side some 50 

 feet above the surface. And it is difficult to suppress the feeling of wonder 



24 — AF. 



