0)1 the Arabian Frontier of Egypt. 37 



a gauche, se repand dans deux vastes bassins qu'elle re:r.- 

 plit. Ces bassins ont 6 a 7 lieues de circonference."* 



It is necessary to remark that both the depth of the water 

 along the Etham valley, and the height of the acclivity be- 

 yond " Hero?' appear greater in the section of the present 

 state of the valley, than they were with respect to the plain 

 of the Delta when the channel was first cut oif. And the 

 I'eason is this :— in all the parts from which the inundations 

 of the Nile have not been purposely excluded, the surface of 

 the soil has continued to rise by the annual deposits of the 

 river ; whereas the general level of the valley from which the 

 free access of the waters has been restrained for more than 

 24 centuries, has not been raised in any thing like the same 

 proportion. The bottom of the bed of canal Moez is now from 

 six to eight feet higher than the general surface of the valley, 

 and shews the difference that may be made to obtain the gene- 

 ral ground-line along the water-course. The beds of the small 

 canals open to near Abbasieh, are also about 9 feet higher. 



Conversely, near Moukfar, where the acclivity appears so 

 exaggerated as to be more like a dyke across a river than a 

 part of its bed, the fact that there was only 5 feet of water, 

 during an extreme inundation, in the bed of the old channel 

 that formerly was navigable all the year round, shews that 

 owing to the great accumulations of sand and soil in the hol- 

 low of the narrow gorge, during many centuries of neglect, 

 the height of the acclivity must be much greater, in a section 

 that includes all this, than it was when the bed of the river 

 was open. 



After allowing for all these circumstances, we still find 

 that the great deptli of the valley from Ethai\[ to Hero com- 

 pared with the other parts of the river's course, must have 

 caused its channel here to be much broader tlian the other 

 parts, as well as deeper, so as even to form several pools. 

 Besides which there must have been a lake at Ras el Wady, 

 with an island in it, upon which are some unidentified ruins. 

 Another shallower lake may have existed in front of Hero. 



* Kxtrait ilu .Journal de M. lJevillu!r.=, Dcscr. do I'Fig., vol. xviii., y\j)j). part i., 

 p. 579-382. Vide alto tliu .Mem. of M. !)iil.uis-Aynio, il.id., p. ;}.W-;351v.,;,,,f ; 



