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similar to that of the Dardanelles, and, with the fall be­tween the two seas, such a channel would produce a current of about four miles an hour; but from its mag­nitude, no human means could excavate such a work or control such a stream when once in operation. To effect such an object, nature must be left with some slight assistance to excavate the desired channel, and when ef­fected to govern its action; and some have gone so far as to imagine that it is only necessary to remove the ob­structions in the ancient canal near Suez, that the water of the Red Sea would then rush into and fill the basin of the Bitter Lakes, and flow again from thence northwards, through the Lagoons to Lake Menzaleh and the Mediter­ranean; and that, in process of time, a great navigable channel like that of the Dardanelles would be opened. But if we except the distance between Suez and the Bitter Lakes, which lie through a natural valley, the circum­stances are altogether different. The shores of the Darda­nelles are firm and rocky, while the Isthmus is composed of sand, mud, and gravel; and the consequence of a great body of uncontrolled sea water issuing from the Bitter Lakes upon such a soil, would, I fear, do anything rather than excavate and maintain a navigable channel; it would spread itself over a vast surface of flat sandy soil, and undermine the banks as fast as they were formed or a small depth of current obtained, producing results simi­lar to what any one may observe on a small scale, when the tide retires on a flat, sandy shore, and leave the land- streams to find their way across it.

We have further to observe, that the prevailing currents of the Mediterranean appear to carry the mud and soil of the Nile eastward; and the mouths of the river, as a conse­quence, are moving westward; so it is probable that an