On the Arabian Frontier of Egypt. 225 



short bi'anch canal, leading through the lakes, begins about 

 two miles beyond the ancient river's point of natural entrance 

 into them, the very fact of an artificial communication having 

 been opened, presupposes that the natural entrance must 

 have been closed up at a former period ; otherwise, another 

 entrance had neither been wanted nor made. 



The remains of a large embankment across the north- 

 eastern opening of the low basin enclosing the lakes, and 

 separating it from the still lower saline plains to the north,* 

 reveal with equal clearness the fact, that there the waters 

 were confined by art within that basin, at the place where 

 originally, the river flowed out of them. It appears then 

 demonstrated by these remains, that although the water of 

 the river, after having been excluded from the lakes at one 

 poiut,t was re-admitted into them at another, by means of 

 this little branch canal, ij: it was not allowed to go beyond the 

 basin ; shewing that the same purpose had been kept in view 

 in both operations — of keeping up the level of the water in 

 the canal by stopping out the final course of the river, only 

 frotn a different spot. 



The succession of events, and the periods to which they 

 are referable, no longer admit of a doubt. When the pur- 

 pose of Darius required that the only outlet of the waters 

 should be the Arabian Gulf, let us suppose he merely cut 

 off their farther progress downwards in a contrary direction, 

 at the place where the stoppage would be most easily eftected. 

 This brings us up to the age of Herodotus — and the Etham 

 branch of the Nile has ceased to exist. The lakes, being 

 now so far separated from the channel of the Nile, as to be 

 fed only by the filtration of its waters through the sandy soil 

 of that district, would then become " bitter lakes'''' — their 

 waters of inferior quality for drinking, although still answer- 

 ing the purpose of irrigating and fertilizing the beautiful val- 

 ley that enclosed them in its bosom. 



Another monarch (which can only have been Ptolemy Phil- 

 adelphus, whose extensive operations relative to the canal, 

 so variously I'ecorded, preceded the era of Strabo by three 



* yide Plate VI. f Vide ^- I'late VI. \ Vide PP. ibi'l. 



VOL XlilV. NO. LXXXVIII. — Al'IlIL 1848. P 



