335 



The capital of the company is in round numbers, sixteen millions sterling. 

 The canal, with its ports at each end, was to be the property of the company 

 for ninety-nine years, after which it would belong to the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment, who, in the meantime, was to receive 15 per cent, of the traffic earnings. 

 The tolls charged for passage were always to be equal for ships of all nations ; 

 and, I think, at about the rate of £30 sterling for a vessel of 500 tons from 

 sea to sea. 



The Maritime Canal extends from the newly-constructed artificial harbour 

 of Port Said on the Pelusian Coast of the Mediterranean, about midway 

 between Alexandria and Joppa, the poi't of Jerusalem, to the port of Suez at 

 the head of the Red Sea. The length of the canal is not quite 100 miles. Its 

 depth throughout is 26 feet; its general width is 246 feet at the base, and 

 328 feet at the top of the banks, except where in some places on the line it 

 has to be cut through high ground, there the width is reduced to 190 feet at 

 the lower part. There will be no locks in the Maritime Canal, and vessels 

 will be able to steam through, or be towed through, in about sixteen hours 

 from sea to sea. 



The ancient Pelusium was selected for the Mediterranean entrance to the 

 canal, because at that spot, 2870 yards from the shore, there was a depth of 

 30 feet of water. This is now called Port Said. There a harbour has been 

 formed by running out into the sea two breakwaters or moles, which are 

 formed of huge blocks of concrete. Each block measures twelve cubic yards, 

 weighs twenty-two tons, and is composed of two-thirds sand and one-third 

 hydraulic lime. The lime is imported from France, the sand is dredged up in 

 the harbour, and each block costs £13 sterling. They are not laid in as 

 masonry, but thrown down loosely, and are intended to answer the double 

 purpose of protecting vessels from heavy seas, and of arresting the alluvium 

 brought down by the River Nile in its passage towards the Bay of Pelusus, so 

 as to prevent its choking up the channel. The western breakwater extends 

 from the shore 2400 yards in a straight line, N.N.E. ; and then with a slight 

 angle towards the east extends 330 yards further. The eastern breakwater 

 leaves the shore at a point 1530 yards to the eastward of the commencement 

 of the western one, and extends nearly north for a distance of 2070 yards, at 

 which point it is 760 yards from the western breakwater, and this distance 

 constitutes the width of the entrance. The portion of the harbour affording 

 shelter to vessels is nearly 500 acres in extent ; and although the depth of 

 water is not sufficient for the largest men-of-war, it is quite sufficient for 

 ordinary merchantmen, if the present depth be maintained. The prevailing 

 winds being from the north-west, large quantities of mud are constantly brought 

 along the shore from the Nile ; and this has been one of the main objections to 

 the pi'obable success of M. Lesseps' scheme. 



Whilst at this point, with the map of the world before us, might I be 

 allowed to point out why the Nile, after leaving upon all the soil of Egypt 

 that is affected by the annual inundation, a sufficient coating of mud to render 

 the country proverbially the most fertile in the world, can yet discharge a 

 torrent of mud by its two mouths likely to endanger the success of a harbour 

 50 miles to the eastward of where the Nile meets the sea. Now that we 

 know from Baker, Speke, Grant and others, that the Bahr al Abiad, or "White 

 Nile, has such a slight inclination from the Lake Victoria Nyanza, that if 

 there were any deposit in the overflow of the lake, it could not proceed far ; it 

 is no longer a matter of speculation from whence the Nile proper receives the 

 alluvium with which its waters are charged during the inundation every July, 

 August, and September. It comes from the Bahr al Azreck, or Blue Nile, 

 which is swollen to a resistless torrent as it rushes from the mountains of 

 Abyssinia during the rainy season, bringing with it the rich humus formed from 



