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discovered a rise of five (french) feet, at the highest 

 tides.* 



M. Volney says that the tide, at the influx of the 

 Nile, rises a little more than three feet.f 



Admittiug the ordinary height of the tides, at the 

 eastern extremity of the Mediterranean sea, to be two 

 feet, or even three, we cannot suppose that it would 

 have any material effect in checking the current of the 

 Nile, particularly during the period of its inundation, 

 when it is greatly accelerated. Hence we may reaso- 

 nably infer, that the alluvion brought down by the 

 Nile, was carried to a considerable distance beyond 

 its mouth, and widely diffused in that ancient gulf or 

 arm of the sea, and constituted one of the causes of the 

 formation of the delta. It is to this cause, in part, 

 that we must attribute the existence of an extended 

 marsh, in the time of Menes. 



As to the commencement of this operation, it is, 

 doubtless, coeval with the existence of the world ; or, 

 at least, we may safely date it from the period at which 

 the waters first subsided from off the face of the earth, 

 and from the time rivers began to flow. As to the 

 nature and progress of its formation, it differed in no 

 material circumstance from that of the Po, the Arno, 

 the Indus, the Ganges, or that of any other, situated 

 where the tides do not rise sufficiently high, to check 

 or control the current of the river. 



* H stoirede 1'Academie des Sciences, 1767. 

 t Volney's Travels, page J37. 



