Page:Nature - Volume 1.pdf/38

24 Thus, during the Triassic epoch, extensive dry land seems to have existed in North America, Western and Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Central India, and South Africa, as it does now; and, throughout this vast area, the Dinosauria—the links between reptiles and birds—seem to have been represented by not fewer, probably by many more, than nine or ten distinct genera.

I hope, shortly, to have the honour of placing the details of the researches into the structure and distribution of the Dinosauria, in which I have been engaged for the last two years, and of which the above notice is one of the results, before the Geological Society.

all-engrossing topic of the day is the Suez Canal, about which some diversities of opinion still exist. As for many years back I have had my attention particularly drawn to some of the chief matters in dispute, having been engaged on the largest irrigation works in India, I venture to trouble you with the following remarks.

Engineering science and indomitable energy have, in the case of the Suez Canal, overcome difficulties which at one time were considered insurmountable; but even up to the present moment doubts still exist, and some fear that the whole scheme may yet prove a failure, owing to the débris of the Nile travelling eastward transported by the currents of air and water. That we can overcome the former is, in my opinion, beyond all doubt; for it is found that whenever an irrigation channel is run out from the Jumna Canal into the great desert of Northern India, rich vegetation takes the place of arid sand. And so in Egypt will irrigation force back the desert; so the only question is, Can irrigation be carried out on an extensive scale? And of this also I have no doubt, for the enormous volume of water which now flows into the sea and is lost, is quite sufficient to reclaim the whole of the desert.

It may be asked, Can the water be made to flow over the desert? And of this I hold that there can also be no doubt. The very name of the Timsa Lake proves, I think, that the Nile, or at least a branch of it, flowed eastward, for the word Timsa signifies crocodile, showing that the water must at one time have been brackish or fresh, for these creatures could not have existed in this lake had it been salt as at present. If, therefore, a portion of the Nile water at one time flower eastward, there can be no great engineering difficulty to make it do so again; and I am almost inclined to think that it would have been better to have made the canal a fresh-water one, for it is only by vegetation, the produce of irrigation, that the desert can be kept under control. Other advantages may be cited, such as cleaning the bottom of ships by bringing them into fresh water, and the prevention of any of the disturbed and very muddy waters along the Mediterranean coast getting admission into the canal; for by keeping the water in the canal at a higher level than that of the sea at both ends there could only be an outflow. So all the water wasted would be expended on lockage.

It may be objected that the fresh-water canal would get silted up by the muddy waters of the Nile; but could not this Timsa Lake be used as a silt-trap? I do not mean to say, that the present canal will be a failure because it has not been made a fresh-water one; but what I do think is, that possibly in the end a fresh-water canal would have been best and perhaps cheapest, as the dredging of the canal might have been much reduced, as the water could have been kept at a higher level in the canal.

The great difficulty, however, to contend against, appears to me to be to keep a deep-water channel at the Mediterranean end of the Canal; and what drew my attention to this more than a dozen years ago, was the fact that the harbour of Alexandria does not get silted up. Some have supposed that the subsidence of the delta accounts for this, and that the small advance of the land on the sea in this direction is owing to a constant sinking of the land. In my opinion a very different cause can be assigned: Nature here is working by a very different agency, namely, the current in the Mediterranean which flows eastward all along the African coast, and transports the débris of the Nile, depositing it all along the western portion of the Mediterranean. The fact of the Timsa Lake being at one time fresh on brackish, goes to support this view; so the only question is, Will the cost of continuous dredging be so excessive that the Canal will become a financial failure? On this point I cannot venture to give an opinion, as I have no data, but I think this difficulty may be met by forcing this easterly current to aid in keeping the mouth of the Canal clear of silt deposits.

What aids this current to transport the earthy matter is the beat of the sea always stirring the mud and sand up on the coast, and enabling the water to hold a large proportion of matter in suspension, and even to transport heavy matter.

The proportion of earthy matter a short distance out to sea is comparatively little, so the great object appears to me to prevent the agitated water travelling as it does at present, and this can be done by arranging the breakwaters somewhat as shown in this diagram.

The breakwater is intended to prevent the very muddy water travelling along the coast, and the point  should extend well out into deep water. The breakwater is to direct the comparatively pure water where the sea is deep to pass across the mouth of the canal; and by the funnel-mouthed shape thus given, the velocity at  will be increased, and thus keep deep water at the head of the canal. Some may say that the expense will be enormous, and that it will have to be year after year extended. But, in reply to this, I say that deltas do not extend out into the sea at so rapid a rate as some suppose; and that the formation of a delta takes several thousands of years to accomplish, so that in this very delta, the advance is hardly perceptible; and that a sinking of the land has been brought forward, to account for the very slow progress made; while, in fact, Nature has at present a power at work which is quite sufficient to explain the reason why so little advance is made on the sea during the historic period (see my paper on the Delta of the Irrawaddy, read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1857).

In conclusion, I have no doubt this Suez Canal will have many ready to abuse it and say it is a total failure, as has been said of the Ganges Canal; but like the latter work, which last year saved some three million human beings from starvation, so will this canal, I have little doubt, outlive the abuse, and become one of the greatest blessings to the civilised world.

, C.E., late of the Ganges Canal.

London, Oct. 29, 1869.