APPENDIX. No. III. INSTRUCTIONS TO MM. LINANT BEY AND MOUGEL BEY.

INSTRUCTIONS TO MM. LINANT BEY AND MOUGEL BEY, For the Scheme of a Maritime Canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and an Alimentary Canal derived from the Nile.

Cairo, January 15, 1855.

Having just finished the exploration confided to us by his Highness Mohammed Saïd Pacha, I think it right to direct the attention of MM. Linant Bey and Mougel Bey to the principal points intended to serve as a programme to the precursory scheme which we have agreed to present, as a preliminary to a more complete report, accompanied by plans, maps, sections, estimates, and other documents in explanation.

1. For the entrance on the Red Sea side; to show what works it will be necessary to execute, as jetties, reservoirs, sluices, &c. if the present port is made use of. To settle the direction of the channel from the present anchorage of the roads of Suez, to the entrance of the Canal.

2. To show the exact direction of the Canal from Suez, to that part of the ancient basin of the Red Sea called the Bitter Lakes.

3. To explain how it is intended to take advantage of this basin, and whether, in passing through it, the Maritime Canal is to have one or two banks, or not to have any at all.

4. To lay down the continuation of the Canal as far as the basin of Lake Timsah, which is intended to serve as an inland port.

5. Works to be performed in rendering Lake Timsah fit for the object proposed. To give the length of the quay walls. In its passage through Lake Timsah, the Canal must be excavated of a greater breadth than in the rest of its course, in order to allow the vessels to lay at the quays without obstructing the passage. These quays are to be established, as far as possible, in the neighbourhood of the fresh water canal.

6. Course of the Maritime Canal from Lake Timsah to Lake Menzaleh.

7. The works to be executed along Lake Menzaleh, or in the lake itself, for the course of the Canal.

8. Is the opening of the Canal into the Mediterranean to be at the opening of the ancient Pelusiac branch?

9. To specify particularly the kind, nature, and dimensions of the works that will have to be executed in jetties, moles, breakwaters, reservoirs, retaining basins, &c. in order to obviate the objections made up to the present time, as to the difficulties or alleged impossibilities, proceeding from alluvial deposits on the coast, and the choking up of the opening of a Canal into the Mediterranean. This part of the scheme must be based upon incontestable proofs, exemplifications, and calculations.

10. What is the bulk of water that will enter the Maritime Canal from the Red Sea at each tide?

11. What advantage may be derived from the height of the tides, both in the course of the Maritime Canal, in the basin of the Bitter Lakes, and at the Pelusiac mouth?

12. To calculate for the Maritime Canal at a breadth of 100 metres at the level of low water in the Mediterranean, with liberty to reduce it to sixty-five or seventy metres, in those few instances where the necessary excavations and removals would be too considerable. The water line, or depth, is to be calculated at six, at seven, and at eight metres, all below the level of low water in the Mediterranean, in order that the Company may choose, according to the expense, that one of the three depths which shall be most advantageous to its interests, combined with those of the navigation.

13. To obviate the objections relative to the difficulties of navigation in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Pelusium.

14. To make a rough estimate of the maximum of all the expenses, and to state the probable date when the Canal can be opened for navigation.

15. To accompany the scheme of the Maritime Canal, with a scheme for a Canal of communication, of alimentation, and irrigation derived from the Nile, taking its point of departure between the barrage and Boulak, to reach the Wady, and come as far as Lake Timsah. The dimensions shall be so calculated, that, taking into account its fall and its supply, the Canal may water at least 100,000 feddans at the time of the inundation, and from 20 to 30,000 during the low water of the river. In the vicinity of Lake Timsah, with which it will communicate, this Canal is to be divided into two branches, for simple irrigation; the first to be directed towards Suez, the other towards Pelusium.

16. To examine whether the sands of the downs on the Isthmus, will occasion any obstacle to the construction and maintenance of the Canal, and how they may be turned to account by means of the Irrigating Canal.

17. To furnish a maximum estimate of the secondary Canal derived from the Nile, and to state the length of time required for the works.

18. To give an account of the nature and quality of the materials, which can be easily, and without great cost of transport, applied in the whole of the works, and also the localities from whence they are to be obtained.

19. Finally, to furnish an approximate statement of the minimum anticipated revenues, of the grand Maritime Canal, and of the Canal of alimentation and interior navigation.

I do not mean to confine the labours of MM. Linant Bey and Mougel Bey, within the mere limits indicated in this programme.

While bearing witness to the good understanding that I have observed to exist between them, and the identity of their convictions, as to the possibility of the communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, by a Canal accessible to large vessels, I beg them, in case the opinion of either, upon any question whatever, should not be entertained by the other, to state the difference of their views, and to assign the reasons thereof.

Finally, the precursory scheme, accompanied by an explanatory map, is to be finished as quickly as possible.

(Signed) Ferd. de Lesseps.