Though camels are capable of carrying a weight of from 9 to 10 cwt. each at a rate of 2½ miles an hour[322] for twelve or sixteen consecutive hours, it became necessary to adopt other modes of transit as the traffic increased. Two-wheeled vans drawn by four horses, and fitted to carry eight persons, were therefore introduced to transport the passengers from Suez to Cairo, whence they were embarked in sailing boats on the Nile to Alexandria; Mr. Waghorn subsequently organizing, in connection with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, a line of small steamers which took the place of these boats. In course of time caravansaries and hotels were substituted for the original stations and resting-places on the route. These were completed in February 1843, and received the passengers from the _Hindostan_ steamer on her first trip in the regular mail service from Calcutta, Madras, and Galle to Suez, by which time this branch of the business had been undertaken by the Egyptian Transit Company. But, in the organization of all these important works, Mr. Waghorn took the leading part, and their completion, under many difficulties, was in a great measure due to his indefatigable exertions. So early as 1834, Muhammed Ali, seeing the advantages to be obtained by a railway between Cairo and Suez, instructed Mr. Thomas Galloway to make arrangements for its construction, and, with this object in view, the rails, locomotives, and plant, were ordered from England;[323] but, owing to the opposition of France, the formation of this line was continually postponed,[324] and subsequently abandoned. A railway was, however, commenced in 1852 by Robert Stephenson from Alexandria to Cairo, and completed in 1857. Subsequently, it was continued from that city to Suez, branching off at Benha to Zaga-Zig, and following the course of the old canal to Suez, by which a considerable saving of distance was effected over the Cairo route as originally proposed. The line throughout was completed and opened for traffic in 1870. [Sidenote: Suez Canal.] But the grand work, the greatest and grandest connected with maritime commerce, either in ancient or modern times, was the cutting of the Suez Canal, between the town so named at the head of the Red Sea and the shores of the Mediterranean at a place in the Bay of Pelusium, now known as Port Said: this gigantic undertaking is about 100 miles in length, and runs in nearly a straight line almost due north from Suez, passing through various lakes, marshes, or swamps, the principal of which are called Birket Menzaleh, Birket-el-Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes. [Illustration: MAP SHOWING SUEZ CANAL, WITH SURROUNDING COUNTRY AND THE POSITION OF THE OLD CANALS.]