226 On the Arabian Frontier of Egypt. 



centuries), may have thought of turning those lakes to better 

 account, by converting them into a I'eservoir during the inun- 

 dation, to supply the canal when the Nile was low — a pro- 

 ject by no means of difficult execution, from the advantageous 

 position of the lakes ; since it was only necessary to re-open 

 a communication with them, and to transfer the stoppage of 

 the river's course from its place of entrance to its point of 

 exit. The first was effected by the little branch canal — the 

 latter by the great transverse embankment. This brings us 

 up to the time of Strabo, and he might then well say of these 

 lakes, that " formerly they were bitter ; " but " had been 

 made sweet by the canal that flowed through them." 



And, in conclusion, the little canal between 2 and 3 M. P. 

 long, would just make up the complement of the 37i of works 

 attributed to Ptolemy Philadelphus by Pliny's account. 



This last circumstance is the only direct indication from 

 which the supposed operations about the " hitter lakes' maj' 

 be referred personally to Ptolemy, as part of a connected 

 series of works, all essential to the success of his canal en- 

 terprise ; but where direct proof, in the satisfactory form of 

 an authentic historical statement, is wanting, we must be 

 content with a reasonable degree of indirect evidence. The 

 vestiges of these operations, by themselves, prove nothing ; 

 but considered in connexion with Strabo's account concerning 

 these lakes, they unquestionably indicate that after the Nile 

 had been excluded from them, before the time of Herodotus^ 

 it was re-admitted into them by means of a canal, before 

 Strabo wrote ; and even though we had no further clue to 

 the authors of these works, the main object of this inquiry 

 would be proved, namely, that the Etham arm of the Nile 

 was cut off from its course at a particular time, and at a par- 

 ticular spot. Whether this was done by Darius and Ptolemy 

 themselves, or by their immediate predecessors or successors, 

 is quite a secondary question ; its solution may be a matter 

 of curious interest, but is not indispensable to establish the 

 point at issue, which is, the former existence and intentional 

 suppression of this river. But when, upon a critical analysis 

 of the levels of land and water, we find that all the works 

 connected with this suppression were indispensable to the 



