THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 503 



on earth more subject to suffer from disasters conse- 

 quent on the conflicts of the elements. 



The last of the great river deltas, which we propose 

 to select as a type deserving* of special notice, is that 

 of the Nile the parent of Egypt. 



This great historic river, inseparably connected with 

 the earliest annals of the human race -and already 

 famous when shut out from the purview of antiquarian 

 research in the mists of antiquity contains so many 

 examples of phenomena unprecedented elsewhere, that 

 no survey of the world's great river systems, however 

 brief, could be esteemed complete without some recog- 

 nition of the claims of the Nile to hold a leading 

 place as one of the grandest of all streams ; while its 

 embouchure, opening as it does into the comparatively 

 still waters of the Mediterranean, has, as might have 

 been expected, formed by its sedimentary deposits one 

 of the most perfect specimens of a river delta at present 

 existing, namely that of a triangle with its base resting 

 on the sea, and its apex at what was probably near 

 the original head of the river estuary ; indeed it was 

 in consequence of its almost perfect resemblance in 

 shape to the capital D of the Greek alphabet, that the 

 name " Delta " was first given to it this term being 

 subsequently applied by geographers to similar forma- 

 tions at the mouths of other rivers. 



In former times the Nile discharged itself into the 

 sea by seven mouths; but at the present day there 

 are but two branches, which enter it, one at Rosetta, 

 on the eastern side of Aboukir Bay, and the other at 

 Damietta, to the west of Lake Menzaleh, through 

 whose eastern margin the Suez Canal was excavated, 

 from a point now known as "Port Said," and it is 



