340 



As to this change having been produced by the ope- 

 ration of the tides ; who, when he considers that the 

 tide, in the middle of that sea, rises but twelve inches,* 

 can suppose that such an increase only will cause a 

 current of sufficient force, to take up the sand, and 

 drive it upon the beach ; when, as before, we may see, 

 in rivulets, creeks, and rivers, the currents flowing at 

 the rate of four or five miles an hour, yet not a particle 

 of sand is seen to move ? 



Besides, admitting that a current of some force does 

 prevail in that sea during flood tide, whence is the 

 sand brought in a quantity sufficient to fill up the head 

 of the gulf, and cause a retreat of the sea for six 

 miles ?f The gulf of Suez is not represented as hav- 



* See Lord Vaientia's Travels, vol. II, page 274, and Ren- 

 nell's Herodotus, page 4-76. 



t I have already remarked that, during, or immediately after 

 the universal deluge, the Isthmus of Suez, in all probability, did 

 not exist. The more this subject is examined, and the various cir- 

 cumstances inseparably connected with it, the less reason I find to 

 alter or change my opinion on that head. It is well known that it 

 is a low level plain, rising but a very little above the level of the 

 Mediterranean and Red Sea ; that it lies immediately between two 

 deserts of great extent, over which the Etesian and Levant winds 

 are sweeping, and bearing the sand away in torrents, directly 

 across this isthmus, almost from one end of the year to the other. 



It is also well known, that it has actually made considerable 

 advances upon the gulf of Suez or Red Sea, within a few centuries 

 and in the course of time, most probably a distance of many 

 leagues ; for when the French where in possession of Suez, their 

 engineers discovered, at a little distance to the north of that place, 



