After many discouraging failures, M. de Lesseps' great work was completed last year, and the formal opening of the canal took place in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and a goodly number of princes, potentates, and distinguished personages. It is now open to navigation from end to end, and ships of considerable tonnage have successfully accomplished the passage. Whether the canal is a commercial success may still be doubted. The cost of further deepening and enlarging it, and of maintaining its banks and harbours, amounts to a sum which, as yet, the traffic charges are not at all likely to defray. But, in an engineering sense, the Suez Canal is one of the wonders of this wonderful nineteenth century.
FOOTNOTES:
[E] August 17, 1850.
EARTH AND SEA. From the French of Louis Figuier. Translated, Edited, and Enlarged by W. H. Davenport Adams, Illustrated with Two Hundred and Fifty Engravings by Freeman, Giacomelli, Yan D'Argent, Prior, Foulquier, Riou, Laplante, and other Artists. Imperial 8vo. Handsomely bound in cloth and gold. Price 15s.
This volume is founded upon M. Figuier's "La Terre et Les Mers," but so many additions have been made to the original, and its aim and scope have been so largely extended, that it may almost be called a new work. These additions and this extension were deemed necessary by the Editor, in order to render it more suitable for the British public, and in order to bring it up to the standard of geographical knowledge.
THE DESERT WORLD. From the French of Arthur Mangin. Translated, Edited, and Enlarged by the Translator of "The Bird," by Michelet. With One Hundred and Sixty Illustrations by W. Freeman, Foulquier, and Yan D'Argent. Imperial 8vo, full gilt side and gilt edges. Price 12s. 6d.
Saturday Review.—"The illustrations are numerous, and extremely well cut. Two handsomer and more readable volumes than this and 'The Mysteries of the Ocean' it would be difficult to produce."