Suez (Soo'ez), a town of Egypt, is situated at the southern extremity of the Suez Canal and on the Gulf of Suez, a northern arm of the Red Sea. Close beside the town the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company have extensive store-houses, there is an English hospital, and the sweet-water canal terminates here. The railway from Ismailia runs through the town on to the spacious harbour 2 miles beyond. Suez has not a very large trade of its own (£800,000 to £900,000 annually); most of the commerce passes through it without making halt. Pop. (1897) 17,460. More than once in the past this place, the Arsinoe of the Ptolemies, the Colzum of the early Moslems, was the seat of a flourishing trade; from the 16th to the 18th century it formed an important etape in the European trade with India. It revived when the overland mail route to India was opened in 1837, and has prospered more since the completion of the canal. Rameses II. seems to have been the first to excavate a canal between the Nile delta and the Red Sea, which was reopened by Darius I. of Persia, and again by the Moslem conquerors of Egypt. Napoleon commissioned Lepere in 1798 to examine and report upon the plan of a ship-canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. This expert's erroneous opinion, that the surface of the Red Sea was nearly 30 feet higher than that of the Mediterranean, put an end to the project. But the mistake having been corrected by English officers in 1841, Lesseps set himself (in 1849) to study the isthmus, and in 1854 he managed to enlist the interest of Said Pasha, khedive of Egypt, in his scheme. Two years later the Porte granted its permission and a company was formed. Half the capital was raised in Europe, chiefly in France; the other half by the khedive. In 1859, 25,000 to 30,000 men were at work excavating, and the canal was opened on the 16th November 1869. It had cost altogether about 24 million pounds. The total length is 100 miles; the width of the water-surface was at first 150 to 300 feet, the width at the bottom 72 feet, and the minimum depth 26 feet. At Port Said two strong breakwaters, 6940 and 6020 feet long respectively, were run out into the Mediterranean; at Suez another substantial mole was constructed. The canal crosses Lake Menzaleh (28 miles long), Lake Ballah, Lake Timsah (5 miles long), and the Bitter Lakes (23 miles). The highest point is but 50 feet above sea-level. At intervals of 5 or 6 miles side-basins are provided to enable vessels to pass one another. Erelong the traffic had increased so enormously that a second canal was talked about; and in 1886-90 the canal had been deepened to 28 feet, and widened in parts to 144 feet, and in some places to 213 feet. In 1870, 486 vessels of 654,915 tons passed through the canal; in 1903, 3761 of 11,907,28S net tons, of which 2278 vessels of 7,403,553 tons were British. The time required for passage has been shortened (by help of electric lights, etc.) from 36 hours to 24 hours. Lord Beaconsfield's government bought the khedive's shares (176,602 out of a total of 500,000) in 1875 for Britain. The total receipts exceed £4,000,000 annually. See works by Lesseps (1875 and 1881), his Life by G. B. Smith (1893), and the various periodic returns. Suffolk (Suf'fok), the easternmost county of England, is bounded E. by the German Ocean, and elsewhere by Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk. Its length from E. to W. is 57 miles; its mean breadth from N. to S. about 30 miles; and its area, 1475 sq. m. Pop. (1801) 210,431; (1831) 296,317; (1861) 337,070; (1901) 384,19S. Though no hills of any notable character rise within its confines, Suffolk is not by any means flat. The sea-coast is low and skirted by banks of shingle, except near Lowestoft and Southwold, and again at Dunwich and Felixstowe, which all rest on sandstone cliffs; beyond stretches an almost continuous series of light sandy heathlands, glorious in summer with gorse and heather; and inland the country is undulating, well watered, and for the most part well wooded, the scenery in places - e.g. at Yoxford (' the Garden of Suffolk'), and in the vale of the Gipping - being very picturesque. More than two-thirds of the county consists of heavy land, a stiff clay prevailing in Mid (or as it is locally termed 'High') Suffolk, whilst the western part lies upon chalk, terminating at its north-west corner with a tract of peaty fen-land. The Waveney, Alde, Deben, Orwell, and Stour, all flowing eastwards, are the principal rivers. Coprolites are raised in the region between Ipswich and Woodbridge, gun-flints at Brandon. Agriculture, despite the depression of late years, still forms the staple industry, 780,000 acres being under cultivation. The manufactures are noticed under Ipswich (the capital), Beccles, Stowmarket, and Sudbury, these being, with Bury St Edmunds, Lowestoft, and Woodbridge, the chief towns. Containing 21 hundreds and 517 civil parishes in the dioceses of Norwich and Ely, its parliamentary divisions are five in number, each returning one member, and it has two county councils, one for the eastern and the other for the western district. In antiquities the county is especially rich, and amongst them may be noted the ruins of the castles of Burgh (Roman), Framlingham, Orford, and Wingfield; the gatehouse of Butley Priory (Norman); earthworks at Fornham, Haughley, Nacton, and Snape; the fine flint-work churches; and the old halls (many of them moated) of Helmingham, Parham, Hengrave, Rushbrooke, Ickworth, Somerleyton, Giffords, and West Stow. Suffolk worthies (other than those named under Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds) have been Bishops Grosseteste, Aungerville, and Bale; Archbishop Sancroft; Chief-justices Glanvill and Cavendish; George Cavendish (Wolsey's biographer); Nash, Crabbe, and Robert Bloom field (poets); Sir Simonds D'Ewes; the Earl of Arlington, Roger North; Gainsborough, Frost, Constable, and Bright (artists); Bunbury (caricaturist), Woolner (the sculptor), Lord Chancellor Thurlow, Arthur Young, Clara Reeve, Mrs Inchbald, Kirby (naturalist), John Hookham Frere, Crabb Robinson, Sir Philip Broke, John and Charles Austin, Admirals Fitzroy and Rous, Dr Routh, Professors Maurice and Cowell, Edward FitzGerald, Sir Henry Thompson, Agnes Strickland, and Miss Betham Edwards. See works by Kirby (2d ed. 1764), Cullum (1813), Gage (1838), Page (1844), Suckling (2 vols. 1846-48), Clyde (1858-66), Baynes (2 vols. 1873), Taylor (new ed. 1892), and White (new ed. 1891); also the Quarterly (April 1887).