THE SUEZ CANAL. 3 the sense in which Columbus is described as the discoverer of America ; on the other hand, he is not unjustly described as the creator of the Canal. I doubt, as" i later events proved only too fully, his having had any / /-gjyspecial engineering capacity or his having taken any y, leading part in the actual carrying out of the great ( work with which his name is permanently and justly identified. I have heard him often repeat a story of how the way to make the Suez Canal first presented itself to his mind when he was walking on the sands of some seaside bathing-place — the exact locality mentioned was not always the same — and noticed the fact that while dry sand crumbled under his feet, wet sand bore the weight of his body without any serious depression. But beyond this somewhat elementary contribution, his conversation added but little to one's knowledge of the story of the canal's construction. This part of the undertaking ] was left to his subordinates. But all the ability and / zeal displayed by his fellow-workers would not have V been of much avail without the exuberant energy of f M. de Lesseps. . He, if not the master mind, was \ the motive power in the whole enterprise. His extraordinary self-confidence, his indomitable cheerfulness, his absolute determination to carry out the undertaking to which he had devoted himself, his courage, tact, good-humour, adaptability of character, and force of will, amounted almost, if not quite, to genius. No doubt the Suez Canal would have been made sooner or later by somebody. But it would not