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Note. 1847 .

Since the publication of this tract, the Author has not heard of any well-founded objections to the feasibility of the proposed Ship Canal.

It is true that in the Times newspaper there have frequently appeared communications from a contributor, who, without offering any definite arguments, affects to scout the establishment of a canal by reason of two alleged difficulties :

1st. That at the Mediterranean terminus of the proposed Canal, near Tineh, the coast is so uncommonly low as not to be seen by a vessel until within a very short distance of the shore.

2nd. That the water is very shoal for some miles from the shore.

Nothing can be more true, or more generally known than the above two circumstances.

The lowness of the coast does not merit much consideration, as the Mediterranean mouth of the proposed Canal would only be in a similar case to the mouths of the Nile, and to those of many large navigable rivers, viz., with the land only a few feet above the level of the sea, so that the situation would have to be pointed out, as in such cases, by a lofty lighthouse.

With respect to the shoalness of the coast:

It is not of a rocky nature, but is formed from the oozy matter, &c., brought down by the Nile, and drifted to the Eastward, and to excavate through which, nothing could be more easy of execution by a steam dredging machine.

Assuming, for sake of argument, that it would be necessary to dredge a distance of five miles in the Bay of Tineh, that would only make the length of construction of the Canal 80 miles instead of 15, the assumed breadth of the Isthmus from shore to shore ; and it will be obvious to all English Engineers, conversant with the use of the