304 



" That Egypt was raised and augmented in this 

 manner, viz. by the inundation bringing along with 

 it, every year an addifton of soil, whereby not only 

 the land, already made, would be raised, but the soil 

 would be likewise extended to the very skirts of the 

 Valley, &c. appears from several circumstances. For, 

 whereas the soil of other plain countries is usually of 

 the same depth, here we find it vary in proportion to 

 the distance from the river ; being sometimes near 

 the banks more than thirty feet high, whilst at the ut- 

 most extremity of the inundation, viz. at the skirts of 

 the valley and next to the hills, it is not the quarter 

 part of so many inches."* 



Now the waters which overflowed the valleys or 

 lands adjacent to the banks, on each side of the river, 

 were those which flowed round the extremity of the 

 banks, at the mouth of the river, and up the valleys ; 

 or such as were designedly drawn off from the river, 

 through canals constructed for the purpose,! i nto t e 

 valleys, with the express intention of irrigating the 

 lands and profiting by the alluvion. 



The waters thus derived direct from the Nile, and 

 charged with their full quantity of alluvion, naturally 

 settled first upon the lowest ground ; as they increas- 

 ed they became deeper, and the grounds remained 

 longer submerged than the more elevated lands that were 

 inundated but a short time; such as those from twenty 

 to thirty feet high, and such as were but slightly over- 



* Shaw's Travels, page 439. f Do. page 441. 



