AND LOWER EGYPT. I3I 



and the other issued from the branch of the Nile, 

 to which the name of Bolbotic has been given, pre- 

 served there a salutary coolness, at the same time 

 that they favoured vegetation and agriculture. 

 These works, which attested the grandeur and the 

 power of ancient Egypt, and the maintenance of 

 which was equally called for by the real wants and 

 the innocent pleasures of human life, were still kept 

 up, under the domination of the caliphs. Abul- 

 feda, an historian of Arabia, speaks of Alexandria 

 as a very great city, encompassed by superb gar- 

 dens*. The destruction of what had cost so 

 much pains and labour was reserved for the Turks. 

 Their spirit of devastation had dried up those re- 

 servoirs of water which, with their moisture, dif- 

 fused fertility, as it has quenched the sources of 

 knowledge, and of all mental energy in the peo- 

 ple who have been so unfortunate as to be subject- 

 ed to a despotism the most horrible. 



Of these nothing now remains, and that too in a 

 state of degradation, but the canal of Lower Egypt: 

 during the inundation it received the waters of the 

 Nile at Latf, opposite to Fouah. It is passable by 

 three bridges of modern construction. Near the 

 first, toward the sea, is the entrance of the subter- 

 raneous conduit, which conveys the provision of 

 water for the inhabitants of Alexandria into the 



* Description of Egypt. 



k 2 cisterns, 



