The Isthmus of Suez Question

by Ferdinand de Lesseps

The Company will thus be able to fertilise 100,000 feddans, of which 60,000 will be by irrigation, and which will give the richest produce.

The Canal follows the course of the Zafranieh as far as Tell el Yaoudieh, where there is a lock of 2 met., 50 fall; it then leaves this ancient water-course to the left as far as Ras-el-Wady: in this interval there are three other locks.

Leaving Ras-el-Wady, the track of the Canal is directed so as to keep it as high as possible, and to avoid the downs which occupy the whole of the valley, and are constantly moving from south to north: all these downs should therefore be fixed by seed-plots, and their superfice may perhaps be approximately estimated at 50,000 hectares. The valley called Wady-Tomilat comprises two quite distinct parts; the first, from Abasseh-Mollaut to the east as far as Ras-el-Wady, is well cultivated; the other from this point, as far as Lake Timsah, is uncultivated and covered with shrubs, which will furnish an excellent combustible for the manufacture of lime and bricks, as well as for the requirements of the workmen, until it is cultivated. At present the waters of the Nile spread naturally during the inundation for half the distance from Ras-el-Wady to Lake Timsah. The Ras-el-Wady channel extends along the valley with a depth of 7 metres, and it opens into Lake Timsah with a double lock, forming together a fall of 7 metres.

Above this lock there is a water-course for irrigation running towards Suez, and a conduit of water on the Charmeroi system which goes towards Pelusium, so that, for the whole extent of the Isthmus, there will be water in abundance for the use of the workmen; the water-course for irrigation is 20 metres wide, 8700 metres in length, and has a fall of ,04 per kilom., which gives a difference of 3 met., 48 in the level.

So that at Suez the water-line of the water-course will be 7 met.,00 - 3,48 = 3,52. The depth of the canal being 1,50, it will be seen that its bed will be 2,02 above the level of low water, and near about that of high water. There will consequently be no fear of the infiltration of salt water.

The section of the water-course thus determined, will rule for one-third of its length, but its breadth will be reduced to 15 metres for a second third, and to 10 metres for the remaining third.

The water-course of Suez follows the direction and even the bed of the ancient canal, as far as the Serapeum, the culminating point of the bar of that name; it then leaves the ancient canal to the east, to avoid the sands, passes into a solid plain, makes the circuit of the grand basin of the Isthmus, arrives at the narrowest part, and continues in the plain at a sufficient height not to let the fresh water pass into the low and salt lands.

If on the Pelusiac side, a conduit of water has been adopted instead of an open water-course, it is in order to obtain fresh water more quickly for the whole length of the Maritime Canal, and because the tillage on the Pelusiac side does not begin until after that of Suez. And the pipes when they shall be replaced hereafter by a water-course, will serve to form a good distribution of water in the town which will arise at Port Timsah.

The advantages of the undertaking are now demonstrated. But it is not so with regard to the returns which it will give to the shareholders. Doubt is prevalent in the financial world, in consequence of the widely different estimates made by the engineers, both as to the cost and the probable returns. We have therefore directed our investigations more particularly to this capital point of the question, taking care to guard against every kind of exaggeration, in order to arrive at accurate and conscientious results, and at figures as near as possible to the truth.