f rom the Nile to the Red Sea. 27 7 
to the depth of three or four feet through the sandy isthmus 
which divides the gulf from the Bitter Lakes, the waters of the 
Red Sea would flow northward into the basin of these lakes, 
and then pass on to the Delta, and to the lake Menzaleh, which 
communicates with the Mediterranean. They would encounter 
no obstacles in their course, except from certain dikes run across 
the Wadi, to shut out the annual inundation of the Nile. In ex- 
traordinary floods, however, the Nile surmounts these barriers. 
In 1800, it submerged the long valley to the depth of 25 feet in 
some places, and penetrated to the Serapeum. A rise of the 
ground here, most probably artificial, stopped its progress ; and, 
but for this obstruction, its waters would have filled the basin 
of the Bitter Lakes, and reached to within a few miles of the 
Red Sea. It may be safely stated, therefore, that there is not 
a spot in the world where a water communication of equal ex- 
tent could be made with the same facility, and where human 
skill would produce so great a change with so small an effort. 
It will now be understood, that the ancient Egyptians might 
have carried their canal, either directly from Arsinoe (Suez) to 
Pelusium, or from Arsinoe to the Nile, by the Wadi or Long 
Valley. They preferred the latter route, and probably for two 
reasons: 1st, That it enabled the capital and the heart of the 
kingdom to communicate with the Red Sea, by the shortest and 
safest route ; 2d, That Pelusium must have been at all times a 
bad port. In truth, the French engineers considered the line 
by the Wadi so decidedly preferable, that they adopted it in 
their project for re-establishing the canal. 
The ancient canal may be considered as formed of four dis- 
tinct sections. The first begins about a mile and a half north 
of Suez, and extends across the low sandy isthmus to the Bitter 
Lakes (See the Map). Its length is 21,656 metres, or 13 J 
English miles. Over the whole of this space, with a few excep- 
tions, the vestiges of the canal can be distinctly traced. The 
remains of the walls or banks are from 1 or 2 to 15 or 20 feet 
in height. The space between them is generally about 40 or 
50 yards *. The ground being kept moist by rain-water, which 
* Where precision is not required, I substitute yards for metres, and English 
feet for French. The metre is equal to 39,37 English inches, and the English foot 
is to the French as 1 to 1,05977, or as 15 to 16. 
