24 On the Arabian Frontier of Efjypt. 



The first thing that strikes one as remarkable, in this sec- 

 tion, is the ahrvpt fall of the water-line just beyond Tel el 

 Jehud : and this would be much more remarkable, if the river 

 had not already sunk to half its maximum height, when the 

 measurements were taken. This reduced level continues 

 along about twenty miles of canal, till the further progress 

 of the water is arrested by the dykes of Tel el Wady near 

 Abbasieh. — To irrigate the Wady, the water is occasionally 

 let out as far as the great dyke at Ras el Wady, as all this 

 part of the valley, and even the bed of the old canal, are cul- 

 tivated ground ; but this does not take place every year. 



One cannot look at this sudden interruption of the water- 

 line, in connection with the great depth of the valley beyond it, 

 without suspecting that some artificial restraint must be em- 

 ployed to keep the water lower than the line of its natural 

 flow ; and that, without such restraint, a branch of the Nile 

 would probably run along this valley at the present time. 



The great inundation of 1800 proved this fact, and much 

 besides, more conclusively than any argument. It fortu- 

 nately happened while the survey by the French engineers 

 was in progress, so that the results were observed and re- 

 corded by them. The Nile rose so rapidly to an unusual 

 height, that it broke through its embankments, and filled the 

 whole length of the valley to the Crocodile lakes. The depth 

 of the Avater, between Abbasieh and Ras el Wady, varied 

 from 15 to 25 Paris feet. Every road from Belbeis to the 

 north was stopped, being rendered impassable for months, 

 from the quantity of water, except at " Moukfar," where 

 the bottom of the valley rises and its sides contract. There, 

 the course of the water was confined to the bed of the an- 

 cient canal, which is in tolerably good preservation, though 

 so much choked up by sand and alluvial matter that the 

 depth of the water was only five feet; so that there was 

 at that place one fordable passage. Beyond this spot, the 

 water began to flow downward with a veri/ rapid current ; it 

 filled the lagoons of the Crocodile lakes, passed through 

 an opening at the north-eastern end of the basin enclosing 

 the lakes, and there was lost in a line of low saline marshes 



