with thi Mediterranean. I?? 



"8. It is probable then that this grand communication might 

 be re-eftabliihedbyfimp!e cleanfvhg or by fome amendment, 

 but with fluices and other neceflary works at both the mouths, 

 that navigation might at all . ble, what- 



ever might be the variable height of the waters in the river 

 and the Tea; the 1 f which, i mding what has 



been faid on th will be found eonftantly lower than 



the former even at the time of the highefr. tides. The high- 

 %ft rifings of the Nile, therefore, which at Foftat are faid to 

 be from 20 to 22 cubits, mud determine the general level 

 of the canal, that is to fay, the height of the locks neceflary 

 to delcend towards each of its extremities when the waters 

 are at their loweft, and alio the difta'nee and height of the 

 place from which the water of th& Upper Nile mull be 

 drawn off to feed this canal, coafting along the Hope of 

 the mountain as far as the northern cape or promontory of 

 Mokattan, or from a bafon raifed about thirty feet above 

 Grand Cairo. It would alfo be attended with the valuable 

 advantage of fountains and great embellifhments to that city, 

 become the central mart or repository of the ancient world. 

 Befidcs, it would be a powerful preservative againft infalu- 

 bnty and that contagion which fo frequently affli& that im- 

 menfe city, on account of the drought and exeefiive filthi- 

 nefs which prevail there. 



It may be readily fecn, then, that this plan does not prefent 

 nearly fo many phyfical difficulties, and is not l'uch an im- 

 menfe enterprife as fome have imagined ; Alice the dillance 

 either from Cairo to Suez, or t« Colzoum, or to any other 

 port more to the fouth or more convenient, does not^exceed 

 25 leagues; for that of Suez feems difficult, and" to be 

 threatened with being fpeedily choked up at the point of 

 the gulph which is the narrowed, and which becomes 

 narrower every day-a new reafon for abandoning a canal, 

 though perhaps the ihortell, vJuch fhould proceed dire&fy 

 from Suez to the Mediterranean, particularly when we con - 

 he impyffibility of conducting fo far, and amid ft h.eh 



£ 3 a foil 



