Abstract
IT is stated on excellent authority that a constant current runs through the central portion of the Suez Canal, from the side of the Mediterranean to that of the Red Sea, and a good deal of surprise has been excited by this apparently anomalous phenomenon. A little consideration will, however, suffice to establish a theory, that constant currents are almost necessary conditions of inter-oceanic canals, and that their absence, not their presence, would be contrary to just expectation. My reason is based on the improbability that a long canal, A B, could be constructed across strata that are almost necessarily inclined in one direction more than another, which should not resist the flow of tidal water from, say, A towards B, more than from B towards A. Wherever this differential aspect is established, a quasi-valvular action is called into existence, and a current along the middle of the canal, in a constant direction, is the necessary consequence.
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GALTON, F. On the reported Current in the Suez Canal. Nature 2, 189 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002189a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002189a0
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