terranean into the Red Sea; so the Greek or Phoenician mariners in Pharaoh Necho's service, who first circumnavigated Africa. This has led many into the belief of a previous existence of a ship canal between Pelasium and Arsinoe (Suez.)

The range of coast from the mouths of the Nile eastwards to El-Arish, and farther still, does not allow any permanent maritime establishment— proof thereof, the inland towns of Rosetto and Damiatte, which, but a few hundred years ago were seaports, and so was Mansoora, too, in the time of St. Louis. This, no doubt, was one of the reasons why Alexander the Great selected the barren shores of the port of Alexandria for the establishment of his emporium. Yet even here alluvion is at work. Ras e teen, or the Cape of the Fig-trees, where the seraglio and government buildings stand, was an island in Julius Cæsar's time, and is now connected with the main by the wide neck of land on which modern Alexandria is confined. Where this neck of land begins to extend, about 1,500 yards from the neat anchorage of coasting vessels, some twenty years ago the ruins of a gigantic custom-house were found, which in all probability originally was erected close to the beach. The eastern or new port of Alexandria is every year filling more and more with sand and mud, and offers but little protection, except to coasting vessels of light draft.

The distance from sea to sea, between Suez and Pelusium-90 miles-is intersected by two shallow lakes or marshes of bitter water, and a branch of the lake, or, better said, Gulf of Menzaleh, as shallow as the former. The dry land consists of calcareous rock, similar to the tract of desert between Cairo and Suez. This shows sufficiently that the projector of the canal, instead of diggers-as set down in his estimate of the cost of the canal-will have to employ throughout masons, stonecutters, and miners, and that the work will take thrice as many years as estimated by him, with a proportionate increase of means, too.

On account of the shallowness of the coast in the vicinity of Pelusium, a twin mole, 6,000 yards in length, has to be projected into the sea to reach a depth of 25 feet of water. This depth, by the rapid increase in the tonnage of sea steamers now-a-days, will be found inadequate for general navigation long before this canal can be opened, and then the question arises, Will the alluvion stop at the head of these moles? The approaches to the canal in the Gulf of Suez are more difficult still, and necessitate the same works as in the Mediterranean.

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M. Lesseps has some misgivings himself about the possibility of carrying through his gigantic enterprise, and says somewhere in his memoir, "Should the construction of the canal be found materially impossible, then, of course, it would be abandoned." I suppose not before finances cease flowing. Linant-bey, one of the associates of this gentleman, squandered millions of dollars and over twenty years of time, at the Barrages," which are yet unfinished, and never will be of use; on the contrary, they are a serious obstacle to the navigation of the Nile-and at the first extraordinary rise of this river will force it into a new bed. Now, M. Linant leaves the unfinished "Barrages" but for the canal, and so will Messrs. Lesseps, Linant, and Mugelle leave the canal only for something better still. This latter gentleman, a military engineer, has made himself conspicuous with the tortifications of Alexandria-say of a place which is entirely deprived of fresh water, and draws its supplies from the distant Nile by the Mahmoodick Canal, which it wants but a marauding party to

destroy effectually in a single night; also the fortifications of the said Barrages are comtemplated by this eminent engineer. These fortifications will be about as useful as those of Alexandria.

Although in 1799 and 1845 the best French and Austrian engineers were appointed to survey the ground through which the canal has to be carried and the range of coast where it has to terminate, still no mention is made in their report of the rocky nature of the soil. This is comprehensible; but not so the oversight of "the unexceptionable anchorage, with water clear, bottom hard and free of making sand; soundings 25 feet, and at a distance of but two miles from the shore, west, but still in the vicinity of Palasium," which it was left to the distinguished engineers and savans in Sayd Pacha's service to discover in the very nick of time, when M. Lesseps was opening the subscription list of his Canal project. But what is more surprising is, that the same lucky discovery should be made simultaneously in Suez road. Now, I am pretty well acquainted with this road myself, and have good reasons to doubt that at the distance of two miles from Arsinoe, i. e., from the proposed terminus of the Canal, such an anchorage, as discovered by the said savans, can be found-as, moreover, Moresby's Chart will decide at once.

Of

This reminds me of M. Lesseps' authorities in nautical matters in reference to the Red Sea; they are Brace's romantic travels, from some improved French translation no doubt, and a wholly unknown traveling report of a French baron by the name of Escairac de Lautour. Moresby, Horseburgh's Directions, Haines, Wellsted, Sheikh Ibrahim, and others, he knows nothing-perhaps because their works are written in a language with which he is not familiar.

M. Lesseps, in his comparing of distances, takes Bombay as the startingpoint. Singapore, for its central position, would be more appropriate, of course; but then the result of his calculations would be less striking, less startling.

These glittering prospects, apparently, are intended for Sayd Pacha and his courtiers. Sayd Pacha, like his father, Mohamet Aaly, is easily led into any scheme which humors his ambition and leads to monopoly-as, for instance, the Suez Canal in the light presented by the French projectors.

Mohamet Aaly, too, left to his offspring a hereditary policy or hobby, viz., the restoration of the Arabian Khalifaat, and the independence from, if not the overthrow of, the Ottoman power. This hobby, thirty years ago, led to all the admired reforms in army, navy, and administrationto the useless fortifications, too, of Alexandria, and to the worse than useless, the worthless Egyptian fleet, in which the revenues of the country were engulfed for years. This hobby it was-but by no means a generous disposition in the character, falsely credited to the Græco-Slavonic Arnaout chieftain, Mohamet Aaly-which created the hot-house cultivation of reforms in Egypt. This hobby cracked Mohamet Aaly's brain ten years before his death, and probably was the cause of the premature end of his favorite son's (Ibrahim) career, whose political tendencies did not suit Abdul Medjid's administration.

By the best intelligence received, Sayd Pacha seems to have lost his wits, too. This, no doubt, is the cause of the late appointment of a Turkish Commissioner to Egypt. Nothing shows better how Lesseps and his associates in the canal scheme know how to manage the weak-minded

Pacha, than the childish proposition they made to him some time ago, viz., to christen the new port to be established on the Mediterranean "Saydopolis!"

The discoveries of Diaz and Colombo were not the direct cause of the great commercial revolution in the fifteenth century, which changed so completely the run of the world's trade. As long as the Portuguese mariners used eight months' time to reach the Malabar coast, following the coast from Mogadore to Mogadoxo, from whence they crossed the Arabian Sea with the assistance of Arabian pilots, a peaceable competition from this quarter would not have been very dangerous to the Arabian monopoly of Indian trade. Violence and mismanagement only brought this monopoly into the hands of the Portuguese, and closed the channel of the Red Sea to the world's trade. The spirit of enterprise in the North lacked but an appropriate field whereon to exercise its expansive power and intellect. The Portuguese and Spaniards found the field, but were too weak to withstand the throng of the Northern intruders, who soon grasped the benefit of the discovery. John Bart, a Fleming, first availed himself of the Western trade-wind; his short voyages of four months to the Malayan Archipelago were then ascribed to witchcraft, and gave rise to the fable of the "Flying Dutchman." Improvement upon improvement followed since in ship-building, astronomy, and nautical art, in the intellectual North. Meanwhile, Southern Europe remained stationary, on account of the indolence of its inhabitants, and their avowed aversion to innovations and progress.

New York, Liverpool, and Hamburg are now the staples of the world's trade-and here lies the axis round which the trade moves. The continent of Europe is open in the North by half a dozen streams; meanwhile, its southern shores, from the Rhone to the Hellespont, are hemmed in by rocky mountains. With the exception of some unimportant streams in the peninsulas of Italy and Iberia, there is but the Rhone leading into the interior of the continent, and even this solitary stream is not accessible to sea-going vessels of the smallest sort.

Genoa is contriving at a monster tunnel through the Alps to bring the world's trade back on the old path, now fallen into disuse for three centuries and more; but this is not enough, she has also to provide for exchange goods to India, in order to succeed in her endeavors. Swiss, German, and French manufactures; dried fruits, wine, and salad-oil, are not sufficient to reach the proposed end of attracting the Indian trade into the Mediterranean, even with a canal as wide and deep as the English Channel, and a tunnel to match; and for a special trade only, such gigantic artificial communications are by far too costly. Where are the coals, the iron, and the colossal manufactures depending therefrom; where the lordly oaks and pines for ship-building; the naval stores and provisions to fill the host of vessels India bound? The Mediterranean has no substitute for them.

The African shores, from Morocco to the Nile valley, are hemmed in with the desert sand; so is Syria. On this whole coast, of over 2,000 miles extent, the Nile is the only highroad practicable leading to the interior. The Archipelago, with few exceptions, is composed of rocky and barren islands; the Peninsula of Morea is of the same character; and Asia Minor, with the European provinces of Turkey, are in a greatly neglected and impoverished state. Italy, and the provinces of Russia,

Austria, and France, bordering on the Mediterranean and Black Sea, are the only important parts for the projected Indian trade by the Suez Canal. Yet all the Mediterranean provinces in Asia, Africa, and Europe, put together, do not consume one-eighth of the produce annually exported from India and China in American, English, Dutch, and Hanseatic bot

toms.

M. Lesseps estimates this trade at one hundred millions of pounds sterling per annum, and the tonnage it occupies, at six millions. Of this amount, he boldly vindicates half as the minimum for his Ship Canal, and bases thereon the rentability of his scheme. But before I touch this matter, I will review the nautical part of my proposed theme--the Suez Canal.

In the winter of 1842-43, I made the voyage from Singapore to Hamburg, estimated at about 14,000 miles, in exactly four months' time, with a "Hambro" bark of no extraordinary sailing qualities. We passed the Sunda Strait with the northeast monsoon, and steered from thence, assisted by the eastern trade-wind, in a direct course to the Cape land. In the vicinity of Madagascar, a gale of wind occasioned a heavy damage in our rigging, which it cost three days' time to repair before we could proceed on our voyage, and three days more we lost in Capetown. From this latter place, the southeastern trade-wind carried the vessel, in a direct course, past St. Helena and Ascension, to the height of Madeira, where we encountered variable winds. In the channel, westerly winds are rather more frequent, but still not so much as in the Strait of Gibraltar, where vessels very often are detained for weeks together, waiting for a favorable change of wind.

In July, 1843, I left Bremenhaven, on board a 150-ton schooner brig belonging to that port, en route for the Red Sea and Egypt. Down to Funchal, the voyage was rather tedious; but from thence to the equator, easterly winds advanced us at a rate of 160 miles in 24 hours. We passed the line in 22° west of Greenwich, at an equal distance from both continents, so as to escape the calms which in these regions are so frequent and tedious in the vicinity of the land. From thence we approached the Brazilian coast to enter the western trade-wind, and descended in a slanting line towards the Cape of Good Hope, which we passed in about 42-3° south, continually assisted by the western trade-wind, by which we made, for 18 days in succession, without ever changing sails, from 204 to 206 miles in 24 hours. From the western trade-wind, steering north, we entered the eastern trade-wind, and finally the southwest monsoon, but rather late in the season, else we would have had a fine run the whole distance up to Socotra.

The average run of a vessel of ordinary sailing qualities, both waysto and from India, as I experienced-may be set down at 120 miles in 24 hours.

Let us compare now the passage from Havre to Singapore, round the Cape of Good Hope, with the one from Marseilles to Singapore, through the proposed Suez-Pelasium Ship Canal, in order to illustrate the truism, that in navigation the straight line is not always the shortest-a fact of which M. Lesseps seems not aware. The distance from Havre to Singapore, by the Cape, may be set down at 13,500 miles, and the sailing time for an ordinary sailing craft, say at 112 days; whereas the distance from Marseilles to Singapore, on the straight line through the Red Sea, is but 7,000 miles.

The distance from Marseilles to Pelasium is about 1,600 miles. On account of the northerly winds in the Gulf of Lyons, and the western between Gibraltar and Cape Bonn, the average term of the voyage from Marseilles to Pelasium may be set down at 20 days, whereas 30 days in the contrary direction are hardly sufficient. The length of the canal will be about 100 miles, and the time to pass through, with the formalities to perform, will occupy 3 days.

In the port of Alexandria vessels are often detained from three to six weeks by contrary winds, which it would be rather dangerous to encounter in the back corner of the Mediterranean, where the ports of Alexandria and Suda, in Candia, are the only refuges available. But I will take no notice here of the more than probable loss of time to which sailing vessels coming from India might be exposed in Pelusium.

From Suez to Bab-el-Mandeb the distance is exactly 1,200 miles. The northern part of the Red Sea is swept by northerly winds nine months out of twelve; the southern part, on the contrary, has eight months south, (aseeab,) and four months north, (shamal,) wind. The worst is, these winds blow with few and but short interruptions, and make the navigation in this narrow sea very tiresome. From Bab-el-Mandeb to Suez, and vice versa, 25 days may be considered a good average run for a common sailing vessel; of course, a clipper would do better, and would be more appropriate for such voyages in general.

The Gulf of Aden, from Bab-el-Mandeb to Socotra, is 600 miles. The wind here is constantly east, but the current is in the contrary direction. If four days are sufficient to reach Bab-el-Mandeb from Socotra, eight are hardly sufficient on the return. From Socotra to Singapore the distance is about 3,500 miles, which, with the favorable monsoon, may easily be performed in 35 days; whereas against it, twice this time is hardly sufficient-proof, the English mail steamers, which perform the distance from Bombay to Aden, with the monsoon, in 7 days, and against it, in 12 and

more.

From the preceding, it appears that the Suez-Pelusium Canal, in the performance of the 7,000 miles between Singapore and Marseilles, will hardly save 18 days on the Singapore-Havre route, round the Cape. This, of course, is understood with the monsoon to aid; against it, the shorter distance would prove the longer passage of the two. As the monsoon changes every six months, many vessels which entered by the Red Sea might find it convenient even to return by the Cape; this would reduce still the number of the few customers to the projected canal.

That no sailing vessel from the United States, nor from England, Holland, or Germany-nay, even from Cadiz or Gibraltar, will ever dream of shortening the passage to Calcutta, Singapore, or Canton, by Lesseps' canal, will now be understood.

The average run of common sailing vessels in the Mediterranean may be set down at 55 miles in 24 hours, and in the Red Sea, at 48. For the whole voyage from Marseilles to Singapore, with the southwest monsoon, the average run would be 70, and against the northeast monsoon, hardly 60 miles; whereas, as before stated, the average of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope reaches 120 miles. Then the chance, alluded to before, of having the vessel wind-bound at Pelasium for weeks together, makes the apparent economy of 18 days rather illusory.

The idea expressed by M. Lesseps in his memoir on the Suez Canal,