The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-26 00:00:00

THE S UN; LONDON,

to the required depth have resulted iu prtiv. 1
Medi t'e rran ean
levelA of the
ing that the
and Red Seas ar e tl. ,e same, that ttie soil is free
from rock and e as 7 I to excavale, and that the
sands are of a suf 5 PJiently fixed character. Much
difficulty was apprehended oy us at a distance,
accustomed to 3 :cad of ttle ever-moving seas of
sand, from this cause ; but the surveying party
found the ruin a of old cities still uncovered, and
even the vet? roarids heaped up a few years ago
to prevent ..
The entrance of air beneath
the tents of • A e: xploring expedition, lying as fresh
as if it ha,43. been the work but of a few days pre-
vious. In SOME' parts, also, the native shrubs of
the, desert, in others the tendency of the excavated
land to solidify, almost to the hardness of stone,
', co-operate in giving stability to the arid surface.
It seems quite clear that the Egyptian navvy will
have easy work, and that no unusual cost will be
l incurred in preserving the depth of the proposed
l canal.

To the strictly nautical part of the question we
shall not advert further than by remarking, gene-
rally, that the navigation of the Red Sea, and
the voyage thence to and from India, is now eon-
d'ucted with a regularity which seems to dispel all
d oubt on that score. Suez is also at present a
p ore in regular use ; the anchorage and weather
in, the roadstead, which is capable of holding 500
vessels, must be on the whole favourable, since
he English corvette Zenobia has lain there in a
►art exposed to the weather, for the last three
'rears, with not the least shifting of her anchors,
damage to her cables, or interruption of commu-
nication with the shore even for a single day. To
carry the canal out fairly into about 30 feet
'water will require a jetty of nearly a mile in
length. Stone for the purpose lies near at hand.
The cost must, however, be considerable.
But it is on the Mediterranean side that more
serious difficulties have to be overcome. The facts
seem now well established since her MAJESTY'S ship
Tartarus has just returned from a surveying ex-
pedition at the very spot, and her soundings give
the same result, precisely as those taken by the
commission under the auspices of the Egyptian
Government. They both report that the slope of
the coast to deep water is generally the most
gradual coiceivable. Along the greater par
of the coast of the Gulf of Pelusiuni, 30 feet of
water is only reached at some six miles from the
shore, a fall of only 5 feet in a mile I Nor
are there any perceptible tides to afford temporary
daily remedy for this shallowness. At one point,
however, opposite the Height of Taunis, on the
west side of the gulf, the fall is less gradual ;
the depth of thirty feet being there reached at
the distance of a mile-and-a-half from the shore.
Will any canal pay for a jetty of that length, the
materials for the construction of which must be
brought from quarries along the Syrian shore, or
from the Islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, or Scar-
panto I The waves of the coast are of the gentlest
character, but the Tartarus reports an uneasy
ground-swell even in the calmest weather. On
an impartial review, however, of all the physical
difficulties of the scheme, as stated by different
parties, the two costly jetties necessitated by the
long channel which must be dredged through the
shallow waters will prove the grand obstacle to
be overcome, if indeed it can be overcome by any
cost which a company would venture to incur.

" New Facts and Figures relative to the Isthmus of
Suez Canal. Edited by M. Ferdinand de Lesseps,
Minister Plenipotentiary. With a Reply to the "Edin-
burgh Review," by M. Barthelemy St. Rilaire. London
Effingham Wilson.