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On the Comparative Physical Geography of the Arabian frontier 

 of Egypt, at the earliest epoch of Egyptian history, and at the 

 present time. By Miss Fanny CouBAUX. With Two Plates. 

 Communicated by the Authoress. 



The sections (Plate V.,) are constructed from the measuremonts of the French 

 Scientific Survey, for which vide Descr. de I'Egypte, Et Mod., vol. xi.. Journal 

 du Nivellement de I'Isthme. The degrees of the levelling opei-ations are re- 

 tained in the diagram, to facilitate reference. They consist of Frencli feet, 

 inches, and lines, reckoning downwards from an imaginary standard point, 150 

 feet above the high-water mark at Suez. The measures and calculations in the 

 memoir always suppose French feet, when it is not otherwise stated. This is to 

 avoid the confusion likely to arise from the use of two different standards. 

 Twelve French feet are about equal to thirteen English. 



A comparative scale of the perpendicular and horizontal measurements is 

 given in the plate. In such a delineation, one cannot avoid giving a very ex- 

 aggerated idea of the hei<jhts as compared with the distances of the respective 

 points. To obtain a section on a true proportional scale, it would be necessary 

 to make it about 1500 times as long as the engraving, the height remaining the 

 same. 



Introduction. 



The geography of a country is often the index of its histoiy. 

 Its physical peculiarities exercise a sensible influence in form- 

 ing the manners, customs, and character of its inhabitants, 

 and in regulating their internal and external policy. This 

 was peculiarly the case with ancient Egypt. Hemmed in on 

 all sides by natui'al barriers which no hostile neighbour could 

 overpass, we find all her historical remains testifying how, 

 from the remotest antiquity, she had cultivated the arts of 

 peace. The numerous Syrian ti'ibes beyond her frontier had 

 not time to become nations. They wasted their energies in 

 mutual strife for small tracts of land ; Egypt looked on, at- 

 tacked them, and seized the prize they were contending for ; 

 took to herself the lands and souls of her captives, and made 

 them the tools of her pride, in recording their own degrada- 

 tion on the walls of the gigantic monuments reared by their 

 forced labours. 



On one side only was this favoured country open to foreign 

 intrusion ; her Arabian frontier. It seems to have been the 

 persevering aim of the rest of Egypt for centuries, to gain 

 possession of this tract, and to expel its early colonists, tribes 



