On the Arabian Frontier of Egypt. 31 



prolongation of the water-course towards Baal-zepiion may 

 have been attempted, even at that early period, to supply 

 the city more easily with water ; and that we have thus a 

 natural verification of the accounts transmitted by Pliny and 

 Strabo, who doubtless derived them from some more substan- 

 tial authority than idle tradition, that the famous canal of 

 the Red Sea was begun by some ancient Pliaraoh, wdaose 

 name is lost to history, and whose deeds have gone to swell 

 the fame of the fabulous " Sesostris." For reasonable in- 

 ference alone must satisfy us that the safety, prosperity, nay, 

 the very existence, of every city and settlement between 

 " Etham" and the sea, depended on that woi'k being so far 

 executed, at an earlier date than systematic historical records 

 can lead us up to. Nature had not only done three fourths 

 of the work, but she actually compelled man, in self-defence, 

 to execute a considerable portion of the remainder ; and what 

 she did not thus actually compel, she suggested, by the physi- 

 cal features of the tract, that vv^ere singularly favourable to 

 the execution of this great national undertaking. 



On the strength of these various considei-ations, I had been 

 inclined to favour the conjecture that the direct communica- 

 tion of the channel of Etham or Hero with the Red Sea, 

 by means of such a short branch canal, might have been 

 effected wholly, at this early period ; and that the mouth of 

 this canal, being at the head of the gulf, seemed to explain 

 the etymology of the Scriptural name of the site, Pi-ha- 

 'hiroth, '^-•'"r? the " mouth''' or " opening''' of HmoTH. But 

 the amount to be deducted from the present height of the 

 water-line at the point of the Delta, to give its height at 

 that time — and of which I had not formed a fixed esti- 

 mate, seems conclusive, that although such a work would be 

 practicable now, it was not possible then for the canal to 

 run into the sea. It is the sea that would have run into 

 the canal. Eor, if we calculate downwards at the rate above 

 mentioned : — as the highest point now attained by the Nile 

 during the Hood season, at Cairo, is only about nine to ten 

 feet above the Red Sea, it must, in the time of Moses, have 

 been nearly level with the sea at the point of the Delta ; 

 and, therefore, as much lower, at the termination of the canal, 



