the present ami former Levels of Egypt. 219 



positions, that the perpendicular rise of the bed of the Nile 

 extends the inundation and alluvial deposit much farther in a 

 horizontal direction, E. and W., at the present day, than at 

 any previous period ; that it has always continvied to do so ; 

 and that, therefore, there is a wider extent of irrigated land 

 now than in former times, I do not, however, pretend that 

 the same quantity of land is cultivated as formerly ; this must 

 always depend on the population, the energies of the people, 

 the system followed by the government, and other accidental 

 circumstances ; but it is not the fault of the river, nor from 

 any deficiency in the benefits it used to bestow on the soil of 

 Egypt, that much land is left fallow and overgrown with 

 noxious weeds, and the modern inhabitants might pi'ofit by 

 the same means of cultivating the edge of the desert by ar- 

 tificial irrigation as their predecessors, if Egypt only possessed 

 the advantages of population, a favourable system of agricul- 

 tm'e, and a wise government. 



I have made the same observations respecting the extent of 

 the land in other parts of Egypt, all confirming what I have 

 stated, as might reasonably be expected, since the same causes 

 necessarily produce the same effects ; and I now proceed to 

 shew the origin of those erroneous notions which proclaim 

 that the drifting sands have cm-tailed the limits of the arable 

 land of Egypt, and that the desert, constantly encroaching on 

 the soil, threatens to overwhelm the valley of the Nile, and 

 already counteracts the beneficial effects of the inundation. 

 In some parts of Egypt, as at Bahnasa, in latitude 38° 33', at 

 Kerdasi, a little to the N. of the Pyramids, at Werdan, still 

 further N., and a few other places, the sand of the Libyan 

 desei't has been drifted into the valley, and has encumbered 

 the land with hillocks, spreading itself over the fields near 

 the edge of the desert, and sometimes burying trees and 

 buildings to the depth of several feet. This has been par- 

 ticularly the case about Bahnasa ; and Denon, who visited 

 it, and witnessed the effect of the sand in that quarter, spread 

 the alarm of its invasion, which nas been magnified into the 

 annihilation of the arable land of Egypt. But this evil is only 

 partial ; and, as Monsieur Regnier observes, in his Memoir 

 upon the Agriculture of Egypt, published in the great French 



