ADDRESS. Ixxvii 



out, oven in countries in whicli tho phj'sical conditions arc favourable, it 

 may appear that nothing more is required than an adequate supply of un- 

 skilled labour. Far moro than this was required : tho Egyptians had some 

 knowledge of surveying, for Eustathius says they recorded their marches on 

 maps * ; but such knowledge was probably in those days very limited, and 

 it required no ordinary grasp of mind to see the utility of such extensive 

 works as were carried out in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and, having seen tho 

 utility, to successfully design and execute them. To cite one in Egypt — 

 Lake Moeris, of which the remains have been explored by M. Linant, was 

 a reservoir made by one of tho Pharaohs, and supplied by tho flood-waters 

 of the Nile. It was 150 square miles in extent, and was retained by a bank 

 or dam 60 yards wide and 10 high, which can be traced for a distance of 

 thirteen miles. This reservoir was capable of irrigating 1200 square miles 

 of country t.' No work of this class has been undertaken on so vast a scale 

 since, even in these days of great works. 



The prosperity of Egypt was in so great a measure dependent on its great 

 river, that we should expect that the Egyptians, a people so advanced in art 

 and science, would at an early period have made themselves acquainted with 

 its regime. Wc know that they carefully registered tho height of the annual 

 rise of its waters ; such registers still remain inscribed on the rocks on the 

 banks of the Nile, with tho name of tho king in whose reign they were 

 made J. The people of Mesopotamia were equally observant of the regime of 

 their great rivers, and took advantage in designing their canals of the different 

 periods in the rising of tho waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. A special 

 officer was appointed in Babylon, whose duty it was to measure the rise of the 

 river ; and he is mentioned in an inscription found in tho ruins of that city, 

 as recording the height of the water in the temple of Bel §. The Assyrians, 

 who had a far more difficult country to deal with, owing to its rocky and 

 uneven surface, showed even greater skiU than the Babylonians in forming 

 their canals, tunneUing through rock, and building dams of masonry across 

 the Euphrates. While the greater number of these canals in Egy^rt and 

 Mesopotamia were made for the purpose of irrigation, others seem to have 

 been made to serve at the same time for navigation. Such was the canal 

 which effected a junction between tho Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which 

 was a remarkable work, having regard to the requirements of the age in which 

 it was made. Its length was about 80 miles ; its width admitted of two 

 triremes passing one another ||. At least one of the navigable canals of 

 Babylonia, attributed to Nebuchadnezzar, can compare in extent with any 



* Ea-wlinson's 'Herodotus,' vol. ii. p. 278, 2ik1 edit. 



t M. Linant's ' Memoire suv lo lac Moeris.' 



} Lcpsiuss ' Discoveries in Egypt, &c.,' p. 268. 



§ Smith's ' A.ssyrian Discoveries,' pp. 395-397, 2nd edit. 



!| Herodotus, bk. ii. cap. clviii. 



