On the Arabian Frontier of Egi/pt. 35 



throwing the course of the waters wholly into the Pelusiae 

 channel. It could easily be done when the Nile was low, for 

 a reference to the section No. 2 will shew that at that season 

 the canal Moez near Buhastis only has 4 feet of water ; and 

 most probably the depth of the Pelusiae, and of its tributary 

 the Etham channel, near the same locality, were not more 

 than that of the Tanitic, which the canal Moez replaces. 



Under these circumstances, the most convenient point for 

 the new canal to begin would be where the account of Hero- 

 dotus places it : — " The water was derived from the Nile : it 

 entered it a little above the city Bubastis, near Patumos, the 



city of Arabia ; and it terminated in the Erythrean Sea.* 



They began to sink this canal in that part of Egypt which 

 is nearest to Arabia ; contiguous to it is a mountain which 

 stretches towards Memphis, and contains quarries of stone. 

 Commencing at the foot of this, it extends from west to east 

 through a considerable tract of country, and where the moun- 

 tain opens towards the south, it is discharged into the Ara- 

 bian Gulf."f 



The only portion of this canal that needed excavating was 

 the junction of the Pelusiae near Bubastis, with the valley. 

 The part of the canal that lay along the valley itself, did not 

 even follow the bed of the intercepted river ; it must have had 

 the character of a gigantic aqueduct, that entirely confined 

 tlie waters to the north bank of the valley, and restrained 

 them, dui'iug the flood season, to a mere fraction of their ori- 

 ginal breadth, until they fell into the narrow and high natu- 



* ^xra/ hi a'irh rov Ns/Xou ro vdug Ig avr/iV rrArui bs xaro'Xc^di oXlyov 

 Boujdueriog ToXiog, Taga Uoctov/mv Tr^v *Aga/3/>;i/ TroX/;/* loe^ii os kg rriv 

 'E^uOeriV OaXaifeav. — Herodotus ; Euterpe, clviii. 



t Herodotus further says, that " in the prosecution of this work under ISTecho, 

 no lers than 120,000 Egyptians perished ;" but does not say how. The cause 

 of Rucli a catastrophe may however be surmised from the very nature of the 

 operations. We have only to suppose a very probable casualty — that an un- 

 usually high inundation of the Nile broke through the newly made cmbank- 

 Tnonts, and suddenly overwhelmed the workmen and the works, to see through 

 tlio tiutli of a statement which, under the ordinary process of digging a canal, 

 would appear almost fabulous. 



