308 



The Levanters, or easterly winds, on the other hand, 

 are driven from the Persian Gulf across the deserts of 

 Arabia, (which in extent, says M. rolnry, are nearly 

 equal to the Mediterranean,) and also across the Red 

 Sea, and that part of the Arabian desert, which lies 

 between the Red Sea and the Nile ; and are attended 

 with the same or similar circumstances, as with the 

 Etesian winds. 



To these powerful agents, which have been employ- 

 ed, perhaps, trom the commencement of time, we may 

 look for the principal cause of the great change, which 

 has been made at the mouth, and on the borders of the 

 Nile. 



In order, more fully to explain the nature of their 

 operations, and the result of their agency, we will sup- 

 pose, (what every candid mind, on a careful examina- 

 tion, will admit to be true,) that the whole valley of 

 Egypt, at least from the province of Thebes to the pre- 

 sent influx of the Nile, was once, actually, a gulf or 

 arm of the Mediterranean sea, and under the influence 

 of the flux and re-flux of the same tides, which prevail, 

 on the same meridian, in that sea. 



This being the case, it is impossible that ''the 

 whole of Egypt, except the province of Thebes," 

 could have been made one extended marsh, from the 

 alluvion only of that river ; and that for the following 

 reasons.* 



* On this subject Lord Valentia observes, (i After having 

 passed through the delta ; after having: examined its whole line of 

 sea coast, and viewed both the great mouths of the Nile, I confess 



