110 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



sulphur varies in thickness from 15 to 50 feet ; its elevation above 

 sea-level varies from 45 to 200 feet. This island has a surface of 

 about 9 English square miles, or 5760 acres, and contains 1794 

 inhabitants. 



6. ENGINEEKING— CIVIL AND MECHANICAL. 



The Suez Canal. — The past quarter will long be memorable in the 

 annals of Civil Engineering for the completion and successful 

 inauguration of one of the most wonderful works of modern times. 

 The Isthmus of Suez Canal, just completed, is, however, the reali- 

 zation of no modern conception. The idea of traversing that 

 isthmus, or at least the greater portion of it, is so ancient that the 

 original author of it cannot now be named ; but evidences remain 

 to show that, at some very remote period, a canal really did exist 

 between the river Nile and the Eed Sea. As far as can be 

 ascertained it was undertaken by Necho, about six centuries before 

 the Christian era, and subsequently completed by Darius. There 

 exists amongst ancient writers some difference of opinion as to the 

 precise character of the canal and its exact route, but there can be 

 no doubt that a canal was once made, extending from the Nile to 

 the Bitter Lakes, a distance of about thirty-four miles, which, being 

 filled with fresh water by the rising of the Nile, was navigable for 

 at least such portion of the year as the Nile was in flood : it is also 

 certain that a smaller canal was continued from the Bitter Lakes to 

 the Ked Sea, near Suez. These works, which for many centuries 

 had been allowed to fall into decay, were restored about a.d. 649 

 by the Caliph Omar ; but instead of the restored canal joining the 

 Nile, near Bubastis, it curved southward to Cairo, and was named 

 the ' Canal of Cairo.' This canal appears to have continued open 

 until about the year a.d. 767, affording means of water communi- 

 cation between the Nile and the Ked Sea. Subsequently to the 

 above date there do not appear any records of its existence ; but at 

 the latter part of the last century the Emperor Napoleon Bona- 

 parte, during the time of the Egyptian expedition, caused a com- 

 plete survey of the old canal and of its route to be made by M. 

 Lepere. That officer's report was dated in 1799 ; but in conse- 

 quence of the withdrawal of the French from Egypt no further 

 action was taken in the matter. 



The next report on the subject which deserves notice was that 

 of Captain Chesney, of the Indian army, in 1830, who proved the 

 perfect practicability of the project, and his views were subse- 

 quently verified by surveys undertaken under Kobert Stephenson. 

 For many years previously Linant Bey had considered the project 

 of cutting a navigable canal across the Isthmus ; and in 1845 an 



