40 On the Arahiun Fronlicr of Egypt. 



The latter part of its course, from the Crocodile lakes to 

 the Mediterranean, is still tolerably well defined ; although 

 a great portion of the district througli -which it flowed has 

 undergone a change of level, from other causes than me- 

 chanical deposition, which it is necessary to point out. 

 Though the historical interest of tliis change is inconsider- 

 able, its geographical and geological interest may waiTant a 

 brief reference to the phenomena it has produced, were it 

 only to justify the omission of Lake Menzaleh in a map pro- 

 fessing to represent the physical geography of the Egyptian 

 fi'ontier during the remote Mosaic age, and the introduction 

 of water-courses in directions where now, owing to those 

 changes, water could not possibly flow. 



The Lake Menzaleh* appears to have been formed by the 

 depression of a considci'able tract in the north of the Delta, 

 several feet below its former level, that has taken place since 

 the occupation of Egypt by the Romans, i. e., within the last 

 1500 years. The waters of the Mediterranean now cover 

 what, in the time of Sti'abo, was an expanse of marshy plains 

 interspersed with lakes, across which the Mendesian, Tanitic, 

 and Pelusiac arms of the Nile, ran into the sea. The adjoin- 

 ing tract, participating less in the depression, has been con- 

 verted from cultivated or pasture land, into unhealthy and 

 inaccessible marshes. Ruins of cities, that in the time of 

 the Romans were populous and flourishing, Tanis, Mendes, 

 Thmuis, Heracleus (or Sethrum), Daphne, Pelusium, Silce, 

 Diospolis-Parva ; all these are now found in places accessible 

 only to wild boars and water-fowls ; and one city, Tennes- 

 sus,t formerly described as situated on the Tanitic channel, 

 is now a heap on an island in the middle of the lake. 



The natural tendency of the soil of the Delta is to rise by 

 the annual depositions of the river ; to drain marshes, by rais- 

 ing their level ; and to fill up lakes — not to form and extend 

 them. And this tendency is very sensibly observable on the 

 western coast of the Delta, where it has not been afi'ected 

 by a counteracting downward movement. It is therefore evi- 



* A (lotted line in the inrip shews the present extent of Luke Jfenzaleh. 

 t Called also Tcnnees, or Tcnesi. It must be the Hases of Isaiah xxx., 4. 



