36 On the Arabian Frontier of Egypt. 



ral channel beyond Hero. It is in that situation that the 

 ruins of the canal occur, and not in the central depression of 

 the valley where the river originally flowed. The diagram 

 of the canal Moez, introduced into the section, will give an 

 idea of the height of embankments requisite to convey the 

 waters along the valley without overflowing, even when the 

 Nile rose to its highest point. By a glance at this delinea- 

 tion, in which the true proportions of the parts are given, we 

 see at once the verification of Pliny's account, that the canal 

 was in some parts 30 feet deep. He reckoned from the top 

 of the embankments. 



But although Necho replaced the river by a canal, from 

 the Nile to Hero., the river remained in statu quo beyond that 

 point. The physical indications that such was the state of 

 things remain ; the following remarkable extract from Le- 

 pere's " Memoirs sur le canal des deux mers,^''* will speak for 

 itself. " Les digues du canal sont totalenient effacces quel- 

 ques cents toises apres Moukfar ; la vallee devient plus etroite 

 a Saba-Byar,f et Ton doute si le canal a existe dans cette 

 partie, que les sables n'ont pas encore envahie." — P. 73. 



Here, from the original elevation of the soil, so remarkable 

 as hardly to admit of the river's passage at all times of the 

 year, without the aid of additional excavation, it is clear that 

 no dykes were ever necessary, since the highest inundation 

 possible did not even carry the water out of the bed of the 

 river (or canal) at Moukfar. 



Lepere continues thus : — " C'est un pen au dela de ce point 

 que le crue de 1800 pi'esenta un courant exti'emement rapide, 

 (p. 73), * * * courant dont la Vitesse extreme devait resul- 

 ter d'une pente considerable." (P. 85.) 



This is the part beyond which no further artificial excava- 

 tion was necessary, the water having cut its way through a 

 natural opening in the hill, and afterwards, by a sudden 

 bend to the north-east, making its way into the basin of the 

 Crocodile lakes.§ " L'eau, apres avoir fait un grand detour 



* Descr. de I'Egypte, Et Mod., vol. xi. 



t i. c. Valley of Seven Wells. 



§ At the place where the two sections join, vide PI. V. 



