In fact, what M. Lebeau says in his _Histoire du Bas Empire_ (tom, xii., p. 490), following Abulfeda, Prince of Syria, historian and geographer, who was living in the year 753 of the Hegira, is as follows:— “The coast at Farma (a town a little to the east of Pelusium, on the Mediterranean) was only seventy miles (106,000 _metres_) distant from the Red Sea. This space was a very smooth plain, slightly elevated above the level of the two Seas. Amrou formed the design of uniting them by a canal, which he would have filled with the waters of the Nile; but Omar having opposed it, from fear of opening an entrance into Arabia for the ships of the Christians, Amrou turned his thoughts in another direction. There was an ancient canal, called Trajanus Amnis, which Adrian caused to be brought from the Nile near to Babylon, in Egypt, as far as Pharboëtus, now Belbeïs. He met at this place with another canal, commenced by Nechos, and continued by Darius Hystaspes, and the two together discharged themselves into a lagoon of salt water, at the outlet of which Ptolemy Philadelphus caused a large trench to be made, which conducted the waters as far as the town of Arsinoë, or Cleopatris, at that part of the Gulf where Suez now is. “The whole of this canal, being filled up with sand, had become useless at the time of the famous Cleopatra. Amrou was not deterred by the ancient prejudice, which, supposing the waters of the Red Sea to be higher than the soil of Egypt, created a fear of opening a passage for them; and he made it navigable for the transport of the corn of Egypt into Arabia. It is that which is now called Khalig, which passes through Cairo, but it only goes as far as the lagoon called the Lake of Sheib. The remainder, as far as the Red Sea, is entirely filled up, although some traces of it are still distinguishable.” We have thought it necessary to quote the entire passage, because it clearly establishes the question of the Canal, and certain facts to which we shall return hereafter. After Amrou came the Sultan, Mustapha III., _who took great interest in the scheme for the junction of the two Seas by the Isthmus of Suez_, and who intended to execute this work at a time of peace. (See _Mémoires sur les Turcs_, by M. De Tott, Parts iii. and iv.) M. Lepère proposed, it is true, the track of the secondary canal between Alexandria and the interior of Egypt; but his opinion upon the direct track by the Isthmus of Suez is expressed in these terms:—