Biological Notes

Abstract

FAUNA OF THE SUEZ CANAL.—Dr. C. Keller, who is engaged upon a zoological investigation of the Suez Canal, with a special view to determining what exchange of animals may have taken place between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, has recently sent his first report from Ismailia to the St. Gall Society for Commercial Geography. He states that the exchange is proceeding slowly, owing no doubt to the presence of the lakes of bitter-water through which the canal was traced. The inhabitants of these very lakes seem to have been the first to commence migrations. This fact Dr. Keller has unquestionably ascertained with regard to several species of the lower animals; a particularly interesting case being that of a violet species of sponges, belonging to the fauna of the bitter lakes. This is now migrating in the canal towards the Mediterranean. He named this form Lessepsia violacea. Several larger species of fishes, which are now caught in plentiful quantities in the Timsah lake, have migrated there from the Mediterranean: amongst these are Anarrhichas lupus, Solea vulgaris, and Polyprion cernium. Other species have migrated from the Red Sea to the Timsah lake, perhaps to Port Said; amongst these Dr. Keller mentions a large dark green mackerel and several brightly coloured tut small Acanthopteri. The canal itself, in the direction from the Timsah lake towards Port Said shows but a poor fauna; that of the bitter lakes is also poor with regard to different species, while the representatives of the few species that are there are excessively abundant.