THE SUEZ CANAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 42, 14 March 1877, Page 3

THE SUEZ CANAL.

Year after year a vast climatic change is gradually more and more observable m eastern Egypt, or rather, to be more precise, m that belt of land, 90 miles or so long by some, 30 broad, which, extending between Suez and Port Said, is directly influenced by the water of the Suez Canal. Before the canal was opened up there was scarcely a blade of grass j m the region, except on the borders of the bitter lakes and round about, the oasis of Ismailia. But now the whole face of the country is becoming changed. Everywhere along the line of the canal ! herbage of various kinds is springing up. It is, of course, known to every one j that the water of the canal is salt ; but as it filtrates through the sand, it becomes capable of affordiug nourishment to vegetation. Then the large influx of water into the desert has affected the atmosphere. The rapid evaluation which takes place during the day descends m thick dews at night. Captains of the Suez Canal steamers declare that, even m the case of such a rarity as rain, the rainfall is every year markedly increasing. The new verdure of portions of the desert itself attracts the clouds, according to a well-known natural phenomenon. It is also asserted that more and. more each year the character of the northern portion of the Gulf of Suez is becoming assimilated to that of the Mediterranean. This is owing to that very steady though gentle current which is known to flow through the canal m the direction of the Red Sea, where, as is natural, evaporation gies on at a greater pace than m the Mediterranean. It has been tested, and found true, that the water of the canal at the Suez mouth, notwithstanding that it has passed through 90 miles of burning desert, is cooler than that of the Red Sea ten miles or so south of Suez. Since the canal was opened there has been threefold more water m the bitter lakes. This summer, especially, a change for the cooler has been noticed by numbers of observers m the desert which is " spanned by the Bridge of Water."