Page:Notes of a journey across the Isthmus of Krà.pdf/36

 it possesses the same characteristics, in outline and natural features, as those in other parts of the Malay Peninsula, viz:—it is exceedingly tortuous and uneven.

My own observations prove this, and doubtless the engineers' plans will confirm it. No direct line or anything approaching to one exists amongst the innumerable and intricate cluster of hills through which the Krà Route wends its course, and although the elevation is but 250 feet, and probably the bed of the adjacent Klong thirty or forty feet lower, it presents such a gigantic mass of stone cutting, extending as it does two thirds of the distance across the Peninsula, that it would require the wealth of a nation and a century to accomplish.

Now for the next point in the proposed canal scheme—

Supposing a canal could be cut from Krà to Chumpon, it would avail nothing, as the upper half of the Pakchan river is both serpentine and narrow and blocked up with sand banks, and is suitable only for the navigation of steam launches and trading boats; even these frequently get aground in passing up and down.

Again, supposing all obstacles could be overcome to this point, and the entrance of the canal could be situated at some navigable position north of Melliwan, even then the scheme would be as insurmountable as before, for the intricate mass of lofty mountain chains in this neighbourhood would preclude all possibility of making a direct or indirect cut obliquely from any part of the left bank of the Pakchan river to any point on the jungle track east of Krà Pass. I think one glance of the country about here would convince the most sanguine of the impossibility of such an undertaking.

Now for the last point and not the least in importance—

We must again suppose the canal and Pakchan river practicable. There is still remaining another item of considerable difficulty to get over, viz:—the intricate channels at the entrance of the Pakchan.

These are two—one north and the other south of Victoria Island. The former channel is narrow and tortuous, studded with sunken rocks and shifting sand banks. The south channel