335 



days before my leaving Sidon,* M. de Clerambaut, 

 consul of France, shewed me the pavements of the 

 old city of Sidon, s^ven and a half feet lower than the 

 ground on which the present city stands, and con- 

 siderably further back in the gardens, near mount 

 Libauus."t 



It must be observed, however, that in this instance 

 Air. Bruce attributes the cause of this change to the 

 operation of the Etesian winds on the current of the 

 Nile, thereby causing it to flow round by the coast of 

 Egypt and Syria, and by which " has been thrown a 

 great quantity of mud, gravel, and sand, into all the 

 ports of Syria." 



How to account for the apparent inconsistency in 

 the remarks and conclusions of that enlightened 

 author on this point, I am unable to tell. 



That the river Nile, the alluvion of which is a 

 slimy mud, an impalpable powder, If should flow in 

 a circuitous course, more than two hundred and fifty 

 miles through a l^vel sea at a rate sufficient to cam- 

 sand and gravel, and deposite them on the coast of 

 Syria, and in such quantities as to bury cities and fill 



* On the filling up of ports and harbours by the drifting of 

 sands, see Ali Bey's Travels, vol. I. page 235. On the same sub- 

 ject, and the burying of towns and cities by the drifting of sands, 

 see Capt. Riley's Narrative, pages 208, 229, 338, &c. 



t Bruce's Travels, vol. I. page 85. J Do. Do. 



See Herodotus. t See Shaw's Travels. 



