178 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



from the Atlantic offer to the navigation there, that vessels boimcl 

 to India from the United States, England, or Holland, may often 

 double the Cape of Good Hope before one saihng with a like desti- 

 nation fr'om a Mediterranean port would find herself clear of the 

 Straits of Gibraltar. It is therefore not sm^prising that none of 

 the great commercial marts of the present day are found on the 

 shores of this classic sea. The people who inhabit the hydro- 

 graphic basin of the Mediterranean — which includes the finest 

 parts of Europe — ^have, ever since the discovery of the passage 

 around the Cape of Good Hope, been commercially pent up. A 

 ship-canal across the Isthmus of Suez mil let them out into the 

 commercial world, and place them within a few days of all the 

 climates, wants, supplies, and productions of India. It wiU add 

 largely to thefr wealth and prosperity. As these are increased, 

 trading intercourse is enhanced, and so by virtue of this canal they 

 will become better customers for England and Holland, and all 

 other trading nations whose ports are havens of the Atlantic. Oc- 

 cupying this stand-point in thefr system of commercial economy, 

 the people of the United States await with a Hvely interest the 

 completion of the Suez Canal. 



380. Of all parts of the ocean, the warmest water, the saltest and 

 Hydrometricai obser- the hcaviost too, is Said to be fouud in the seas of 

 vations at sea wanted. i^l^Q Indian Occau. A good scrics of observations 

 there with the hydrometer, at the different seasons of the year, is a 

 desideratum. Taking, however, such as we have upon the density 

 of the water in the Ked Sea and the Mediterranean, and upon the- 

 mider currents that run out from these seas, let us examine results. 



381. Several years ago, Mr. Morris, chief engineer of the 

 Specific rjravity of Oriental Company's steam-ship Ajdaha, collected 

 Red Sea Water. spccimcns of Eod Sca wator all the way fr'om Suez 

 to the Straits of Babelmandeb, which were afterwards examined by 

 Dr. Giraud, who reported the following results : * 



Spec. Grav. 



Saline Cont. 

 1000 parts. 



1027 41.0 



1026 40.0 



1024 39.2 



1026 40.5 



1024 39.8 



1024 39.9 



1023 39.2 



Transact, of the Bombay Geograph. Soc. vol. ix., May 1849, to August, 1850.. 



