The Suez Canal in Relation to the Marine Faunas of the Mediterranean and Red Seas

Abstract

THE marine faunas of the Mediterranean and Red Seas differed so widely from one another before the opening of the Suez Canal that in many groups, if a species was found in one sea, it was almost certain that it did not occur in the other. Since then there have been a few Red Sea crustaceans found all over the Mediterranean, and a swimming crab is being commercially fished along the North Egyptian coast, where also the Red Sea pearl oyster is common. The intermingling of the two faunas being clearly an object of great interest, the Royal Society provided the requisite funds for the Cambridge Expedition, the first reports of which are now before us. The leader of the expedition was Mr. (now Prof.) H. Munro Fox, who for several summer vacations had worked at the Suez end of the canal, and with him were associated Mr. Robert Gurney, Mr. V. C. Robinson, and Mr. D. N. Twist. Help was also given by the directors of the Orient Line, and the expedition received an unstinted, generous, and most practical welcome from the Suez Canal Company and the Egyptian Government.