268 MA.IOR-GENEEAL TULLOCH^ C.B., C.M.G.^ ON 



traffic being wilfully interrupted by obstacles sunk in the 

 channel. 1 had also to examine not only the banks but the 

 country on each side of the Canal for a considerable distance. 

 One day, when so employed between Port Said and Kantarah, 

 a gale of wind from the eastward set in and became so strong 

 that I had to cease work. Next morning on going out I 

 found that Lake Menzaleh, which is situated on the west 

 side of the Canal, had totally disappeared, the effect of the 

 high wind on the shallow water having actually driven it 

 away beyond the horizon, and the natives were walking 

 about on the mud where the day before the fishing-boats, 

 now aground, had been floating. When noticing this ex- 

 traordinary dynamical effect of wind on shallow water, it 

 suddenly flashed across mj^ mind that I was witnessing a 

 similar event to what had taken place betAveen three and 

 four thousand years ago, at the time of the passage of the 

 so-called Red Bea by the Israelites. Subsequently, when 

 working at the southern part of the Canal, I came very 

 decidedly to the conclusion that not only was the present 

 Bitter Lake in ancient days a continuation of the Red Sea, 

 but that the northern end of the Bitter Lake extended much 

 further upward than it does noAv, possibly into Lake Timsah, 

 and that the eastern side of the Bitter Lake also formerly 

 extended very much further in that direction, the ancient 

 shore line being evidently several miles to the eastward of 

 its present position. Lake Menzaleh, of course, may be said 

 to be of comparatively modern origin. 



In the time of the Pharaohs the now extinguished 

 Pelusiac branch of the Nile extended across the site of the 

 Canal about midway between Kantarah and Port Said. The 

 place where the Pelusiac branch of the Nile crosses the 

 modern Suez Canal can be distinctly recognised by the dark 

 colour of the banks. The Tanitic branch, now also closed, 

 came out somewhere in the vicinity of Port Said. The 

 lagoons at the mouths of the above-named branches, and 

 the swampy nature of the country near them, must in ancient 

 times have effectually prevented any roads behig made north 

 of Kantarah. The Modern Lake Ballah, which is now simply 

 a swamp, in the ancient times doubtless occupied a very much 

 more extensive tract of country and must have been fifled 

 at each high Nile by infiltration from the Pelusiac branch. 

 The swampy land most probably extended almost as far as 

 Lake Timsah, viz., to El Guisr. Consequently it will be seen 

 that there was only one regular place of passage between 



