337 



western side of the piers, that they would have to be lengthened beyond the 

 money power of any company to support. 



2. The wash of passing steamers and the force of the wind would wear 

 away the sides, and involve the expense of lining the bank with worked stone, 

 while the nearest place from whence it could be obtained would be Cyprus. 

 This expense would ruin any company however rich. 



3. The sand of the desert raised by the high wind would be deposited in 

 the canal, and a constant expense of dredging to keep the channel open would 

 again tax the resources of the company to the utmost. 



An engineer, a Mr. Fowler, has lately been sent to examine the whole 

 project, and he already recommends the large blocks of stone that M. Lesseps 

 has thrown loosely into the sea to form the western breakwater, to be laid solid 

 to prevent the Nile mud from choking up the channel between the two piers. 

 Powerful dredges are also at work keeping that part of the canal open most 

 likely to be obstructed by the drifting sand ; and lastly, the practice of other 

 canals where steam power is vised as a means of traction, is in favour of Mr. 

 Stephenson's objection that the wash of passing vessels will degrade the banks 

 and cause endless expense in lining them with stone. 



It is my sincere desire that the Suez Canal may yet come up to the most 

 confident hopes of its projectors ; for if it answered it would benefit the whole 

 world : but I cannot set my doubts at rest, however much I may wish it to 

 succeed, when I consider the disadvantages under which nature has placed that 

 part of the earth for successfully carrying out such an undertaking. 



The Overland Routes to India. 



There have been several routes to India proposed within the last thirty 

 years, partly by land and partly by sea, arising from the greatly increasing 

 importance of the trade between Europe and the East ; but more particularly 

 from the rapidly developed system of railways which now brings every part of 

 India within an easy distance of London. 



The first was the present route through Egypt, proposed by Lord 

 Ellenborough, when Governor-General of India, and carried out, against much 

 opposition, by Lieut. Waghorn in 1845. 



The second was the line proposed by Colonel Chesney, from the Bay of 

 Iskanderoon, due east 100 miles to Bir on the Euphrates, and thence by that 

 river to Bussorah, in 1850. 



The third was that proposed by Sir Macdonald Stephenson in his pamphlet 

 called " The World's Highway," in 1857. I had a good opportunity of knowing 

 his views upon the subject when employed by him in Asia Minor ; and but 

 for the Ministry of the day being displaced who supported the plan, I was 

 named to organize a party to explore the line in its whole length. The pro- 

 posed line was to start from Belgrade on the Danube, which even at that time 

 was connected with "Vienna and the rest of Europe. It was to run from 

 Belgrade to Constantinople through a pass in the Balkan, by Philipolis and 

 Adrianople, a distance of 500 miles, thus making it possible when the line 

 should be properly organized to reach Constantinople in sixty hours from 

 London. The line was to cross the Bosphorous about four miles above Con- 

 stantinople from the Castles of Europe to the Castles of Asia ; and from thence 

 to Bussorah at the head of the Persian Gulf, a distance of 1400 miles. In 

 this 1900 miles there was comparatively speaking no engineering difficulty to 

 be contended with to be compared with those of the Pyrenees on the .line con- 

 necting Spain and Portugal with France. The first 200 miles through Asia 

 Minor, would cross the elevated plateau of Phrygia near Lake Van, and 

 descend upon the great Assyrian plain watered by the Tigris and Euphrates. 

 From Bussorah the course was to lie along the coast of Persia and Belloochistan 



