REMARKABLE FACTS ABOUT THE SUEZ CANAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 119, 7 September 1876, Page 2

REMARKABLE FACTS ABOUT THE SUEZ CANAL.

M. de Lesseps lias just returned from liis five months' trip to Suez (says an American paper), and on taking liis seat in the Academy of Sciences gave some details concerning his observations. He lias found that Port Said is in no danger whatever of being filled up with sand, and that there is no need for prolonging the piers as proposed. That operation might prove a source of danger, for one single pier there might change the current in a very marked way. The dredging-machine made for the company works regularly and well, and suffices to keep the channel clear. Moreover, it does not fill up as rapidly as supposed, for the work done last year is still free from sand, and two very large ships have recently passed through the canal without difficulty. One was the Serapis, 5,100 tons burden ; the other an English frigate, drawing over twenty fe:.t of water. As for the course of the current in the canal—a matter discussed by a great miiy people—there is no longer a doubt. During the winter the excess of water in the Bitter Lakes runs into the canal, causing the current to set in towards the Mediterranean; but during the summer, when those lakes are lowered by evaporation, the current runs in an opposite direction. M. de Lesseps' states one important fact: formerly rain was unknown upon the Red Sea, but since the lmilding of the canal there are showers about once a fortnight. This has started vegetation even on ths Asiatic side, where the infiltration is only of salt water. The study of the ancient geography and history of that section has been bpgun again by order of the Ivhedive. Recently pieces of splendid monuments were found upon the site of one of the old cities of Ramesss. M, de Lesseps laid two specimens of fossils before the Academy. One was a young shark' ifcli the umbilical cord, which attached it to its mother, still intact ; the other, some oyster shells taken from a bed 14ft. above the levtl of the sea. These details appear trifling, but they are important to saccins.