The enlightened Prince who now governs Egypt, Mohammed Saïd Pacha, wishing to withdraw the question of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez from the uncertainties of theory, and to bring it into practical reality, has granted a firman by which he concedes to the Universal Company formed by the capitalists of all countries, who are freely willing to take part in the undertaking, the construction and working of a Maritime Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, with an additional Canal for communication and irrigation, derived from the Nile. Dictating himself the terms of the Firman of Concession, Prince Mohammed Saïd has required that the undertaking shall be complete, and that an attentive examination of the localities be made, in order to profit by all the advantages offered by nature. He has recommended that the shortest track be followed, the least expensive, and that which will admit of the largest ships. His early studies and his experience in nautical art, have perfectly prepared him for the comprehension of all the bearings of the scientific question. He has indicated Pelusium and Suez, as the extreme points of the cutting to be made in that narrow tract of land, which presents a longitudinal depression across the Isthmus, of thirty leagues, and which is formed by the meeting of the two plains descending with a gradual slope, the one from Egypt, the other from the frontier hills of Asia. He considers that nature has herself traced out the communication between the two Seas, in the line of this depression. Towards Lake Timsah, situated at an equal distance from Suez and Pelusium, another not less remarkable furrow meets the longitudinal depression at right angles; it is that of the _Wady Tomilat_ (the fruitful land of Goshen of Scripture). This furrow still receives, for a considerable length, the overflowings of the Nile, and also appears to form the natural track of a canal of communication, commencing at the river and proceeding to connect itself in the central part of the Isthmus, with the grand line of navigation to be established between the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean. The Maritime Canal will thus be brought into communication with the heart of Egypt, by a fresh water canal, which will receive the same navigation as the Nile, and will serve also for the irrigation of large zones of the desert, exhibiting at present the most wild and desolate aspect. Upon these data we have been instructed to make a preliminary report. Before giving the results of our investigations, it has appeared necessary to us to justify the idea of a direct track between the two Seas; for this line never having been executed, although it is the most natural, it might be supposed that whenever the junction of the two Seas has been attempted, such difficulties have been met with, that it has been obliged to be relinquished; but this is by no means the case, as we shall presently show.