The Suez Canal

If the Suez Canal—the greatest and most truly cosmopolite physical improvement ever undertaken by man—shall prove successful, it will considerably affect the basins of the Mediterranean and of the Red Sea, though in a different manner, and probably in a less degree than the diversion of the current of the Nile from the one to the other—to which I shall presently refer—would do. It is, indeed, conceivable, that if a free channel be once cut from sea to sea, the coincidence of a high tide and a heavy south wind might produce a hydraulic force that would convert the narrow canal into an open strait. In such a case, it is impossible to estimate, or even to foresee, the consequences which might result from the unobstructed mingling of the flowing and ebbing currents of the Red Sea with the almost tideless waters of the Mediterranean. There can be no doubt, however, that they would be of a most important character as respects the simply geographical features and the organic life of both. But the shallowness of the two seas at the termini of the canal, the action of the tides of the one and the currents of the other, and the nature of the intervening isthmus, render the occurrence of such a cataclysm in the highest degree improbable. The obstruction of the canal by sea sand at both ends is a danger far more difficult to guard against and avert, than an irruption of the waters of either sea.

There is, then, no reason to expect any change of coast lines or of natural navigable channels as a direct consequence of the opening of the Suez Canal, but it will, no doubt, produce very interesting revolutions in the animal and vegetable population of both basins. The Mediterranean, with some local exceptions—such as the bays of Calabria, and the coast of Sicily so picturesquely described by Quatrefages—is comparatively poor in marine vegetation, and in shell as well as in fin fish. The scarcity of fish in some of its gulfs is proverbial, and you may scrutinize long stretches of beach on its northern shores, after every south wind for a whole winter, without finding a dozen shells to reward your search. But no one who has not looked down into tropical or subtropical seas can conceive the amazing wealth of the Red Sea in organic life. Its bottom is carpeted or paved with marine plants, with zoophytes and with shells, while its waters are teeming with infinitely varied forms of moving life. Most of its vegetables and its animals, no doubt, are confined by the laws of their organization to warmer temperatures than that of the Mediterranean, but among them there must be many, whose habitat is of a wider range, many whose powers of accommodation would enable them to acclimate themselves in a colder sea.

We may suppose the less numerous aquatic fauna and flora of the Mediterranean to be equally capable of climatic adaptation, and hence, when the canal shall be opened, there will be an interchange of the organic population not already common to both seas. Destructive species, thus newly introduced, may diminish the numbers of their proper prey in either basin, and, on the other hand, the increased supply of appropriate food may greatly multiply the abundance of others, and at the same time add important contributions to the aliment of man in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.

A collateral feature of this great project deserves notice as possessing no inconsiderable geographical importance. I refer to the conduit or conduits constructed from the Nile to the isthmus, primarily to supply fresh water to the laborers on the great canal, and ultimately to serve as aqueducts for the city of Suez, and for the irrigation and reclamation of a large extent of desert soil. In the flourishing days of the Egyptian empire, the waters of the Nile were carried over important districts east of the river. In later ages, most of this territory relapsed into a desert, from the decay of the canals which once fertilized it. There is no difficulty in restoring the ancient channels, or in constructing new, and thus watering not only all the soil that the wisdom of the Pharaohs had improved, but much additional land. Hundreds of square miles of arid sand waste would thus be converted into fields of perennial verdure, and the geography of Lower Egypt would be thereby sensibly changed. If the canal succeeds, considerable towns will grow up at once at both ends of the channel, and at intermediate points, all depending on the maintenance of aqueducts from the Nile, both for water and for the irrigation of the neighboring fields which are to supply them with bread. Important interests will thus be created, which will secure the permanence of the hydraulic works and of the geographical changes produced by them, and Suez, or Port Said, or the city at Lake Timsah, may become the capital of the government which has been so long established at Cairo.