History of Research
47
and pollution probably had some favorable effects on the living communities of
the Canal; however, comparative data are not available.
The clearing of the Suez Canal from the wrecks left there in 1967 was finished
by the spring of 1975. In reviewing the salvage operations carried out in the
Canal, Barracca and Thomas (1975) expressed their surprise at the fact that
" ... the Canal has accumulated little silt in almost eight years of disuse". This
becomes understandable in part, since these authors mention tidal currents in the
southern sector of the Canal which sometimes reached 4 knots and made it
"impossible for divers to work in open water".
2.2 History of Research
At the great World Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, the "Compagnie Universelle
du Canal maritime de Suez" exhibited, among other things a rich collection of
molluscs from the Isthmus of Suez.
This symptomatic fact indicates how intimately the engineering works of the
Canal construction were connected with scientific research. Ferdinand de Lesseps
himself published lengthy papers on the geology and hydrography of the Bitter
Lakes (de Lesseps, 1871, 1876). Voisin Bey, the first chief engineer of the Canal,
published six volumes under the tide "Le Canal de Suez" 1902-1904, with much
hydrological and chemical information. Other scientific publications were written
by engineers, geologists or ships' captains associated with the Compagnie, such
as the geologist Fuchs, Cpt. Vassel, or the ichthyologist Tillier, and the malacologist Bavay (see Table 1).
The great scientific importance ofthe eventual faunal interchange between the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea was realized as soon as the Canal project started.
Vaillant (1865) collected molluscs in the Gulf of Suez in 1864 in order to have a
basis for comparison, after the changes he foresaw: not only species migration but
also adaptation of the invaders to the new environment and their hybridization
with the autochthonous species. Issel in his "Malacologia deI Mar Rosso" (1869)
compared the molluscs on both sides of the Isthmus in order to establish what
species were common to the two seas before the new man-made contact. The
project of Fischer (1865) on the molluscs of the "two shores of the Isthmus of
Suez" had the same purpose. The geologist Fuchs, who spent two years (18641865) with the Compagnie and then returned in 1876, gave a picture of the
subfossil thantocoenoses ofthe molluscs on the Isthmus.
In the first 30 years of the Canal only few general works appeared; however,
owing to the good previous work done on the molluscs, these began to be used as
a test-case for animal migration through the Canal.
Two more general inquiries into the whole of the migrational processes were
made by Keller who visited the Canal in 1882 (1882,1883,1888) and by Krukenberg (1888a) who spent the winter of 1886-1887 there.
There are several reports on the salinities and also other chemical parameters
during the first three decades, supplied by the Compagnie, as weIl as by the
throughgoing oceanographic research ship "Pola" [October-November 1895
47
and pollution probably had some favorable effects on the living communities of
the Canal; however, comparative data are not available.
The clearing of the Suez Canal from the wrecks left there in 1967 was finished
by the spring of 1975. In reviewing the salvage operations carried out in the
Canal, Barracca and Thomas (1975) expressed their surprise at the fact that
" ... the Canal has accumulated little silt in almost eight years of disuse". This
becomes understandable in part, since these authors mention tidal currents in the
southern sector of the Canal which sometimes reached 4 knots and made it
"impossible for divers to work in open water".
2.2 History of Research
At the great World Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, the "Compagnie Universelle
du Canal maritime de Suez" exhibited, among other things a rich collection of
molluscs from the Isthmus of Suez.
This symptomatic fact indicates how intimately the engineering works of the
Canal construction were connected with scientific research. Ferdinand de Lesseps
himself published lengthy papers on the geology and hydrography of the Bitter
Lakes (de Lesseps, 1871, 1876). Voisin Bey, the first chief engineer of the Canal,
published six volumes under the tide "Le Canal de Suez" 1902-1904, with much
hydrological and chemical information. Other scientific publications were written
by engineers, geologists or ships' captains associated with the Compagnie, such
as the geologist Fuchs, Cpt. Vassel, or the ichthyologist Tillier, and the malacologist Bavay (see Table 1).
The great scientific importance ofthe eventual faunal interchange between the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea was realized as soon as the Canal project started.
Vaillant (1865) collected molluscs in the Gulf of Suez in 1864 in order to have a
basis for comparison, after the changes he foresaw: not only species migration but
also adaptation of the invaders to the new environment and their hybridization
with the autochthonous species. Issel in his "Malacologia deI Mar Rosso" (1869)
compared the molluscs on both sides of the Isthmus in order to establish what
species were common to the two seas before the new man-made contact. The
project of Fischer (1865) on the molluscs of the "two shores of the Isthmus of
Suez" had the same purpose. The geologist Fuchs, who spent two years (18641865) with the Compagnie and then returned in 1876, gave a picture of the
subfossil thantocoenoses ofthe molluscs on the Isthmus.
In the first 30 years of the Canal only few general works appeared; however,
owing to the good previous work done on the molluscs, these began to be used as
a test-case for animal migration through the Canal.
Two more general inquiries into the whole of the migrational processes were
made by Keller who visited the Canal in 1882 (1882,1883,1888) and by Krukenberg (1888a) who spent the winter of 1886-1887 there.
There are several reports on the salinities and also other chemical parameters
during the first three decades, supplied by the Compagnie, as weIl as by the
throughgoing oceanographic research ship "Pola" [October-November 1895