25

straight, and controllable channel, to one amongst shift­ing sands and unequal influences of several kinds, which have ended in defeating the objects sought for.

In an economical point of view, it would not be desirable to convert the basin of the Bitter Lakes into a sheet of water. Its surface lies below the level of the Nile, and admits of being irrigated. The extent may he estimated roughly at twenty-seven miles by six, or 103,680 acres. And if the Nile was admitted pretty freely to flood it for several years, and afterwards more sparingly, for the pur­pose of irrigation, it is reasonable, that, with the slime and water which could thus be supplied, the tract might be­come highly valuable for tillage; and when the soil became fixed with a fruitful vegetation, it would be easy and useful to prolong the canal of the Long Yalley or Wadis upon a uniform level through the distance occupied by the basin of the Bitter Lake, as a canal of irrigation, which might also serve for navigation to the small craft of the Nile to the vicinity of Suez, where, by means of locks, it might be con­nected with the great canal of salt water proposed between the two seas, (suppose at the Point (a)).

Whichever line be adopted to form a Ship Navigation between the two seas, the cost would not be far short of two millions sterling; and it is pretty clear, with such an expected outlay, neither States, Rulers, nor Companies would venture on the undertaking without some suflicient guarantee that the cost would be indemnified by the profits of the undertaking. Unfortunately, at present, it is not easy even to form an approximate estimate of the com­merce that would pass through the channel; but, convert­ing the Red Sea into a strait, or open channel, as this measure would do, it is obvious that this new passage would connect the whole shore of the Mediterranean with the east coast of Africa, and with the shores and islands of