Interest on 12,000,000 _fr._ subscribed the first year at 5 _per cent._ for six years _fr._ 3,600,000 —25,000,000 2nd yr. 5 _per cent._ 5 yrs. 6,250,000 —30,000,000 3rd ” ” 4 ” 6,000,000 —33,000,000 4th ” ” 3 ” 4,950,000 —31,000,000 5th ” ” 2 ” 3,100,000 —31,000,000 6th ” ” 1 ” 1,550,000 ---------------- _fr._ 25,450,000 Total of interest payable to the shareholders, to be added to the estimated amount of expenditure 162,550,000 ------------- 188,000,000 ------------- Let us, however, carry the _maximum_ capital to be applied in the undertaking to _fr._ 200,000,000 In presenting the estimate of the works, amounting, as we have seen, to a _maximum_ of 162,550,000 _francs_, we have been desirous of meeting, on the data generally admitted, all the objections hitherto made relative to the difficulties consequent upon the choking up of the entrance of the jetties and the accretions in the basin of the Red Sea or in the gulf of Pelusium. We have been fearful of appearing too bold in pronouncing, in an absolute manner, in favour of dispensing with the sluices and the works which they necessitate. We need not call attention to the fact, that the present is but a precursory scheme; we reserve it for our definitive scheme, to examine an entirely new theory founded on the experience of the most distinguished engineers of France, and on the conclusive opinion now before us of M. Renaud, chief engineer of seaports. We have hopes then, that it will be possible to dispense with the system of sluices, and that we shall thus effect an economy of several millions in the execution of the work. M. Renaud has ascertained that when the sluices open into the sea they lose nearly all their efficiency, and that in many cases they are worse than useless, and become detrimental. They deposit, in front of the channel, the matter which they bring down, and when this matter is not carried off by traversing or littoral currents, it forms, sooner or later, deposits or bars, whose summits are above the bed of the channel. It is thus that the mouths of rivers which flow into seas without tides, are, with few exceptions, without depth of water; the alluvium which is carried along the coasts coming within the action of the current of the river, is driven by that current to a certain distance from the shore, and deposited in proportion as the current loses its power. Being then less