A thorough-cut upon the level of the ocean would be a desirable method of canalization, but it seems like hampering the important design of an intermarine highway for the commerce of the world, with an impracticable condition, to insist that it should possess “absolute freedom from obstruction by lifting locks,” or that it should possess, in any degree, the “character of a strait.” In this statement I find I have the support of M. Garella and Michel Chavalier. The opposition to the system of lift-locks appears to have originated in the objection expressed in Mr. Wheaton’s letter to Mr. Buchanan, to the large number of these structures, recommended in M. Moro’s plan for the canalization of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. FOOTNOTES: [5] Present average of the tonnage of ships of the commercial marine is 380 to 400 tons. The calculation supposes a commercial year of 300 days, and that the same number of ships arrive daily. [6] The Egyptian correspondent of the Boston Advertiser, March 15, 1870, observes: “The channel at Lake Timseh has not much more than 19 feet of water, as on the day of opening. We met two steamers on their way to Bombay, an English vessel going for cotton, and the French steamer Asie. This was evidently all the business of the day, and from the report of the company, it is a fair average of the amount of work done. The company say they register one thousand five hundred tons a day.” In December, 1869 9 steamers and sailing ships 40,000 francs. In January, 1870 16 “ “ 170,000 “ In February, 1870 28 “ “ 269,000 “ In March, 1870 52 “ “ 450,000 “ CHAPTER VI.