flooding, and to what an extraordinary length 

 this method of improvement may be carried, 

 let us again take a view of the Egyptians' im- 

 provements, by means of water, and the won- 

 derful effects of their national induftry. 



What a nation can do, when united in one 

 objecT: ! It almoft exceeds our belief. 



Although the waters of the river Nile had 

 an uncommon fertilizing quality; yet the 

 advantages arifmg therefrom would have 

 been very fmall, if the Egyptians had not 

 adopted fchemes for diftributing the water 

 over a very large tracl of country of 200 

 leagues, never paralelled by any nation in 

 the .world. Their fchemes were admirably 

 well calculated for anfwering the ends pro- 

 pofed. 



We are informed by Savary, that they firfl 

 altered the courfe of the river Nile altogether, 

 which formerly run by the fide of lower E- 

 gypt ; but now, fince altered, they have made 

 the Nile run almofl through the center of 

 lower Egypt, and branched it off, as he fays, 

 " in eighty canals, like rivers, all dug by the 

 ; hand of man, fcvcral of which are twenty, 

 " thirty, and forty leagues in length. The 

 " great lakes of Moeris, Behire, and Marco- 



" tis, 



