ON THE SHOKES OF THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. SU 



the westward tendency of its waters. The average 

 tendency of westward pressure is to depress the 

 water on the eastern, and to raise it on the western, 

 side of each ocean. 



Excepting the influence of the contortions of the 

 coast in causing eddies, the tendency of the westward 

 pressure of the waters of the Mediterranean must 

 tend to cause currents to run westwards in the 

 southern parfs of that sea, and eastwards in the 

 northern parts. But the difference in the latitude 

 between the northern and the southern parts, and, 

 Consequently, the difference in the velocity of rota- 

 tion, is so slight that the currents resulting from 

 westward pressure may, not improbably, be masked 

 by the action of other forces; and the depres- 

 sion of the water at its eastern end may, there- 

 fore, not improbably, be the only clearly apparent 

 effect, resulting from the action of westward pressure 

 in that sea. The pressure against the Isthmus of 

 Suez in the Red Sea is not the full force of equa- 

 torial pressure; nor, on the other hand, is the 

 pressure from the coast in the Mediterranean; and 

 yet the difference in the level of the water about the 

 isthmus, as recorded by Major Rennell, shows the 

 effects of that pressure. 



188. And further : as we have seen- that, accord- 

 ing to our theory, westward pressure tends to cause 

 the level of the Red Sea to be higher than that of 

 the eastern end of the Mediterranean, the former 



