THE SUEZ CANAL. 
521 
We may suppose tlie less numerous aquatic fauna and flora 
of the Mediterranean to be equally capable of climatic adapta¬ 
tion, 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 ex¬ 
tent 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 neigh¬ 
boring 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 pro¬ 
duced 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. 
