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the Nile, which is extremely shallow, and which would need to be cleared and deepened from Bubastes to its mouth at Tineh, an expensive operation, which would be labour wasted, as nature would continue to act as it had acted for 3000 years, viz., fill the bed again with mud. Should another branch of the Nile be substituted, the traffic would have first to ascend the Pelusiac branch, and then to descend again by that other branch to the Mediter­ranean; or otherwise new canals must be cut and main­tained across the Delta, and across the line of current of the flood. But by whatever branch of the Nile the naviga­tion might be conducted, it is obvious, that, during the low state of its water, and for four or five months of the year, it would be impossible to keep open a ship naviga­tion for vessels of a considerable draught of water; and though such a navigation might be highly useful to the internal trade of Egypt during seven or eight months of the year, it ought not to be selected as a regular channel of navigation between the two seas, if a good line of com­munication can be found entirely independent of the Nile.

Before proceeding farther, it remains to be stated, that, besides the line of navigation between the Bed Sea and the Nile, the Drench engineers also projected a line of communication between the two seas, independent of the Nile. This project consisted in adopting the Egyptian or Nile line of navigation from Suez, nearly to Moukfar, and thence to Bas el Moyeh, and from the last-mentioned place, by constructing a navigable channel of running water to the Bay of Tineh, along the line marked yel­low on the Map, and measuring about forty-nine and a half English miles from the Nile line of canal to the Mediterranean, and making a total length of navigation