ii IRRIGATION ALLUVIAL DEPOSIT 171 



rest, far from eating away or rubbing off soil, 

 actually adds to its vigour ; it contains very little 

 that injuriously affects the soil, 1 for by the mud 

 it brings down, it soaks and binds the sands. 

 Egypt, in fact, owes to the river not merely the 

 fertility of the soil, but also the soil itself. It is n 

 a beautiful sight when the Nile has spread itself 

 over all the fields. The plains are hidden, the 

 valleys have disappeared ; only the towns stand out 

 like islands. In the interior of the country there is 

 no communication except by boat. The people are 

 overjoyed the more, the less they can see of their 

 country. Even when the river has resumed its 

 normal course, it discharges into the sea by seven 

 mouths, any one of them itself a sea. Moreover, it 

 sends out many less famous arms toward either bank. 

 And then when we look at the monsters it rears, 

 they are equal to those of ocean in size, and 

 no less formidable. One may judge indeed of the 12 

 greatness of the river from the hugeness of the 

 animals for whose sustenance it provides food in 

 abundance, and for whose free movements it 

 affords room. Balbillus, a most excellent man who 

 has distinguished himself in every walk of letters, 

 has recorded that during his own government of 

 Egypt he himself saw in the largest mouth of the 

 Nile, the Heracleotic, the strange sight of what 

 may be called a pitched battle between dolphins, 

 coming up from the sea, and crocodiles meeting 

 them in front from the river. The crocodiles 13 

 were in the event vanquished by the inoffensive 

 animals with harmless bite. It happened on this 

 wise : The upper part of the crocodile s body is 

 hard, and cannot be pierced by the teeth even of 



1 Or, its least service is that it tempers the soil. 



