[150] One long trough dredger, set to work in June 1885, weighed 760 tons.

[151] It is stated that the number of these baskets used at the trench of El Guisr alone would, if extended in line, reach three times round the world. Of course when the fellaheen were withdrawn in 1864 these baskets were less largely used.

[152] The following table shows the principal distances and the saving by the canal:—

Ports. By Cape. By Canal. Saving by Canal.
Amount. Per Cent.
of Voyage
(Cape.)
nautical
miles.		nautical
miles.		nautical
miles.
Bombay 10,6676,274 4,39341·2
Madras 11,2807,313 3,96735·2
Calcutta 11,9008,083 3,81732·1
Singapore (viâ
 Straits of Sunda) 		11,7408,362 3,37828·8
Hong Kong 13,1809,799 3,38125·6
Shanghai 14,05010,669 3,38124·1
Adelaide 11,78011,100  680 5·8
Melbourne 12,14011,585  555 4·6
Sydney 12,69012,145  545 4·3
Wellington,
 New Zealand		 13,61013,055  555 4·1

[153] This amount was made up as follows:—

£
Construction of canal11,653,218
Transit, estate, and other services533,552
Management charges (11 years)567,296
Interest on shares (11 years)2,673,864
Interest and repayment of debentures585,118
Banking charges, stamps, loss in bonds, &c.    618,905
£16,631,953

[154] “The Statistical Story of the Suez Canal,” in the ‘Journal’ of the Royal Statistical Society for 1887.

[155] ‘Edinburgh Review,’ January 1856, p. 245.

[156] It was assumed that the canal could not take vessels like the Himalaya and the Persia, or indeed any vessel over 350 feet in length.

[157] The preference of Stephenson for a railway is not difficult to understand. He had “won his spurs” in railroad construction, and was familiar with every phase of their working and capabilities, but he had had comparatively little knowledge experimentally of canals. He was, indeed, the apostle of the new era—the railway against the canal.