AND LOWER EGY?T. IQ5 



pen : but when the river has retreated into its 

 bed, it is so shallow at the place of discharge, 

 that boats can hardly get through without touch- 

 ing the ground. However habituated the Egyp- 

 tian mariners may be to the business, they never 

 pass this way without trembling. Some of them 

 have been pointed out to me, who had undergone 

 such paroxysms of terror from this cause, that 

 their beards were turned white by it. During the 

 summer of 1778, there was no more than three 

 feet water in the channel. It has even been observed, 

 that the bottom rose progressively from year to 

 year. The same thing has happened in the Da- 

 mietta branch, the boghass of which, though sur- 

 rounded with banks of sand, which long practice 

 had taught the seamen to shun, did not pass for 

 dangerous : it was not even taken into considera- 

 tion in the arrangements made by merchants re- 

 specting the freight of germes. Nevertheless, to- 

 ward the end of 1777, during my residence at Ros- 

 setta, this passage was absolutely closed up, after 

 the rise of the Nile was at its height, and the first 

 barks which attempted to pass were lost. The 

 danger incurred on that of the Rossetta branch 

 was increasing every year, in proportion as the 

 bottom rose; and, as it was useless to expect, 

 from the ignorance and apathy of Egyptians, the 

 skill and labour requisite to confine the current, 

 and to procure a greater depth of water in the 



o 2 channel, ' 



