During the early years of the last century M. Talbot proposed to build a canal from Suez to Cairo, and to take it by an aqueduct over the Nile at Cairo, and thence to the Mediterranean at Alexandria. In 1846 M. Bourdaloue, after making a double survey from Suez to Tinah, and from Tinah to Suez, decided that the difference between the levels of the two seas was so slight that, if the canal were made, it would be unnecessary to face the embankments, except in places near the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Chesney had surveyed the route for the canal across the Isthmus of Suez, and it is an interesting fact that the present canal exactly follows the route marked out by him. In 1849 M. Ferdinand de Lesseps worked out a scheme for a canal across the isthmus, and in 1854 he brought his plans before Sa'îd Pâsha, who supported them warmly and gave him a preliminary concession which authorised him to form a company for the purpose of excavating a canal between the two seas. M. de Lesseps visited England, and found many capitalists ready to help him, but the British Government under Lord Palmerston looked coldly on the scheme, and even the French Government were not over-pleased with it. When it became evident that the Company would certainly be floated, the British Government, through the Britisn Minister at Constantinople, brought all its influence to bear on the Porte to induce it to veto the making of the canal. As soon as possible M. de Lesseps had a new survey of the route made by Linant Bey and Mougel Bey, which was finished in 1855, and submitted to an International Commission nominated by the Great Powers of Europe. The Commission declared the scheme to be possible, and M. de Lesseps obtained a second concession, notwithstanding that the Sultan had declined to confirm the previous one which had been submitted to him by the Viceroy. The Suez Canal Company was then finally organized, nearly on the same basis on which it at present stands; the concession is to last 99 years from the date of the opening of the canal, and the Government to receive 15 per cent. annually of the earnings of the Company.

In January, 1856, the Porte objected to some of the details connected with the working of the scheme, and so brought everything to a standstill for nearly two years. Finally, the whole matter was submitted for arbitration by the Viceroy of Egypt to the Emperor Napoleon, who in July, 1864, awarded the Company an indemnity of £3,360,000. Meanwhile M. de Lesseps had

many serious difficulties to contend against, and he and his engineers were ordered to leave the country; and on one occasion, when cholera was raging, all their workmen ran away. When the works were commenced, the engineers were confronted with the difficulty of obtaining drinking water. In 1856 the Egyptian Government had agreed to make a freshwater canal from Isma'îlîyah to Port Sa'id, but having experience of the tactics of high officials, M. de Lesseps soon realized that if it was to be made within any reasonable period his Company must make it. Before the fresh-water canal was constructed, 3,000 camels and donkeys were employed in carrying water from the Nile to the works; when the Company had made the fresh-water canal, the Egyptian Government in 1863 purchased it for £400,000. The machinery employed in the making of the Suez Canal cost £2,400,000, and it is calculated that 96,938,066 cubic yards of mud, sand, etc., were dredged and excavated; the cost of the coals consumed was £40,000 per month. Mention has already been made of the difference in level which exists between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and we may also note in passing the action of the tide, which is felt in the southern portion of the canal between Suez and the Bitter Lakes. There is a regular flow and ebb, the flow running in for seven hours, and the ebb running out for five hours. At the Suez entrance the rise at spring tides, unless affected by strong winds, is between 5 feet and 6 feet; about half-way from Suez to the Small Bitter Lake, a distance of 6 miles, it is under 2 feet; at the north end of the Small Bitter Lake, a few inches only; while at the south end of the Great Bitter Lake there is scarcely any perceptible tidal influence. Since the filling of Lake Timsâḥ by the waters of the Mediterranean in April, 1867, the level of the Great Bitter Lake has risen 4 inches, and there is a current of from half a mile to a mile per hour always running from Lake Timsâḥ towards the Mediterranean.

The exact distance across the isthmus from Tinah, which marks the site of Pelusium, to Suez is only 70 miles, but the actual distance which the canal traverses from Port Sa'îd to where it enters the Red Sea, a little to the south-east of Suez, is 100 miles. This additional length is amply compensated by the natural advantages gained in the adoption of the present line, and the credit of suggesting this particular route is due to M. Lavallay, who saw how the work would be facilitated, and the moneys economized by making the beds of Lake

Manzâlah, Balaḥ, Timsâḥ, and the Bitter Lakes form parts of

the bottom of the new canal.

About 60 miles of the canal's course lies through these lakes. The width of the canal at the Suez end is about 300 yards in the widest part. The width of the canal between banks in 1920 varied between 480 and 525 feet; its width at the bottom was between 180 and 225 feet, and its depth between 36 and 40 feet.

The inauguration of the Suez Canal took place on November 16th, 1869, with splendid ceremonies. A benediction of the canal in Arabic was pronounced by the Shêkh Apagada of Cairo, and Monsignor Bauer, Archbishop of Alexandria, conducted an impressive service in the presence of the Khedive, the Emperor of Austria, the Empress of the French, and a crowd of notables of every nationality, and pronounced an eloquent encomium on M. de Lesseps, and on the "obscurs illustres" who had fallen in the course of the work. The cost of entertaining the guests and the inaugural fêtes is said to have been about £2,000,000; some declare that they cost £4,000,000, and some name even a higher figure. The Opera House at Cairo cost £60,000, the palace built at Isma'îlîyah for the occasion £40,000, and for several weeks hospitality was dispensed lavishly to everyone who asked for it from one end of the canal to the other. At the opening ball 6,000 persons were present, but of these 2,000 were uninvited.

The total amount of money received by the Suez Canal Company up to April 30th, 1863, was £13,853,866. The original capital was subscribed in 400,000 shares of £20. In 1868 an additional sum of £4,000,000 was needed, and 333,333 bonds at 12 were issued; only £1,143,687 of this amount were subscribed, and the balance of £2,856,313 was raised in a few days by lottery. In 1871 a loan of £800,000 was raised, and further loans were raised in 1880 and 1887. Besides the ordinary shares there were 100,000 founders' shares, which gave their owners the right to participate in the surplus profits under certain conditions. In 1875 Ismail Pâshâ sold 176,602 Suez Canal shares to the British Government for £3,976,582 sterling; these shares are now worth about £40,000,000. On April 7th, 1911, the Egyptian Government brought before the General Assembly proposals with regard to the renewal of the Suez Canal Concession, and after a prolonged discussion, they were rejected by 66 votes to It will be remembered that the concession of the Suez

one.

Canal Company expires on November 17th, 1968. The proposed Convention, which was rejected by the Egyptian General Assembly, provided that the concession should be prolonged for an additional 40 years to the end of 2008. The Company

was to pay the Government E.4,000,000 in four equal annual instalments beginning on December 15th 1911; from 1921 the Government was to receive a proportion of the net revenue, rising from 4 per cent. in 1921 to 12 per cent. in the years 1961-8. From January 1st, 1969, to the expiration of the prolonged concession in 2008, the net revenue was to be divided between the Company and the Government on the following plan :— When below £2,000,000 the whole was to go to the Company; when between £2,000,000 and £4,000,000, £2,000,000 was to go to the Company and the rest to the Government; when over £4,000,000 it was to be divided equally. From January 1st, 1969, the Government was to forgo the 15 per cent. of the receipts allotted to the Egyptian State by Article 63 of the present Convention. From the same date the Government was to be represented on the Board of Administration by three members. The following figures will illustrate the development of traffic on the Suez Canal:

The total expenditure in 1920 was 60,000,000 francs plus 11,500,000

of francs sunk in improvements.

Of the 2,353 vessels which passed through the canal in 1917, 1,647 were British, 163 French, 33 Dutch, 4 Russian, 231 Italian, 8 Spanish, 20 Norwegian, 15 American, 1 Danish, 127 Greek, 7 Swedish, 6 Portuguese, and 80 Japanese. Since the introduction of the electric light, ships have passed through the canal by day and by night. In 1917 the mean duration of passage for all vessels navigating the canal was 15 hours 44 minutes.

The saving of distance effected by the Suez Canal for a ship sailing from New York, or England, or Marseilles, or St. Petersburg, to the East amounts to 3,600, 4,840, 5,940, and 4,840 nautical miles respectively.