28 Notices of Egypt. 
thousand* of them died along the bank from famine and similar causes ; 
their bodies were stripped and tossed upon the bank, and the earth, 
from the canal formed their covering. There are no locks, but there 
is a gate at either end to check the current, which the risings of the 
Nile would otherwise occasion. It is now the only route of inter- 
course between Alexandria and Cairo, and is thronged with boats of 
all sizes, which use sails when the wind is fair, and are drawn by men 
when itis not. Those for passengers have a fore and after cabin, 
and would be comfortable enough, were it not for the myriads of bed 
bugs that infest them: cockroaches also swarm in them, but these 
are harmless things. 
This canal follows, pretty nearly, the line of the one dug by Al- 
exander the Great, till it comes opposite to Damanhour, when it, un- 
accountably, makes a great bend towards the south and reaches the 
river a few miles below the town of Fouah. The engineer, (a na- 
tive) made another blunder in the levelling, by which the canal is 
nearly dry, during the two months when the Nile is at the lowest. 
I was informed at Cairo, that it is in contemplation to construct a 
rail road from the Red Sea to Cairo, and that contracts for the ma- 
terials have already been entered into, with some houses in England. 
A canal was first thought of, but the engineers were found to relin- 
quish this design ; it is said, on account of the great difference in the 
level of the two places, but more probably on account of the sandy 
nature of the intervening district. 'The natives are much opposed 
to the rail road, as it will interfere with the employment of their 
camels in the portage, but are predicting its failure from the same 
cause, the floating sands. 
The Nile. 
Beautiful indeed, was the appearance of this famous river, as it 
first opened to our sight. We had got well tired of the high black 
banks of the canal of Mahommadie, when a grove of masts announ- 
ced its termination; we passed next through the village of Safr, 
whose houses are too miserable, even for the word hovel: we ascend- 
+ It is difficult to get at statistical facts in this country. Mon. Lenon told us, 
that sixty thousand workmen were employed, and that twenty thousand died: a 
gentleman of veracity, at Alexandria, who saw the work in progress, informed me, 
that one hundred and fifty thousand men were employed at it, and that thirty thou- 
sand perished: he said the Pasha of Menduf alone, drove down fifty thousand. 
