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Mr. J. F.Bateman on the Suez Canal. 



[Jan. 6, 



" 2nd. That no special difficulty in maintaining this channel need be 

 anticipated. 



" 3rd. That it will be necessary to modify the section proposed by the 

 French engineers, making the side slopes much more gradual. 



"4th. That the cost of maintaining the above-mentioned depth of water 

 will be found at first to be largely in excess of the amount estimated. 

 Eventually, it is by no means impossible that means may be found to fix 

 or check the drift of sand, or to shut it out from the canal. But for 

 some years it must be expected that the ordinary action of the atmo- 

 sphere, which has filled up former excavations made in this dry desert, 

 will have the same effect on the new canal. 



"Looking at the work as an engineer, there does not appear to be any 

 difficulty which a skilful application of capital may not overcome." 



In the discussion which followed, while on the one hand Sir William 

 Denison's views were well supported, much was said, on the other hand, of 

 the difficulties which would attend the construction, and the impossibility 

 of keeping open the harbours and the canal. The old questions of silting 

 up and stagnation were discussed ; and quotations from the correspondence 

 of Mr. R. Stephenson with M. de Negrelli were read, with the object of 

 showing the absurdity of the whole scheme. In one of these quotations 

 Mr. Stephenson thus expresses himself : — 



" In conclusion, Sir, I will only say that I have — indeed I can have — 

 no hostility to a maritime canal through the Isthmus of Suez. If I could 

 regard such a canal as commercially advantageous, I have already shown 

 that I should be the first to give it the advantage of my time, my money, 

 and my experience. It was because, after elaborate investigation, and in 

 conjunction with such men as M. Talabot, I arrived at a clear conclusion 

 that the project was not one which deserved serious attention, that I 

 refused to give it support. I should be delighted to see a channel like the 

 Dardanelles or the Bosphorus penetrating the Isthmus that divides the 

 Red Sea from the Mediterranean. But I know that such a channel is im- 

 practicable — that nothing can be effected even by the most unlimited 

 expenditure of time and life and money beyond the formation of a 

 stagnant ditch, between two almost tideless seas, unapproachable by large 

 ships under any circumstances, and only capable of being used by small 

 vessels when the prevalent winds permit their exit and their entrance. I 

 believe that the project will prove abortive in itself and ruinous to its con- 

 structors ; and entertaining that view, I will no longer permit it to be said 

 that, by abstaining from expressing myself fully on the subject, I am 

 tacitly allowing capitalists to throw away their money on what my know- 

 ledge assures me to be an unwise and unremunerative speculation." 



It was shown also by calculations that the evaporation from the Bitter 

 Lakes alone, without taking into consideration the long length of canal, 

 was such that the channel from the Red Sea to the lakes was much too 



