IETBODUCTION. 



The chief town is called Medinet-el-Fayum, and is built near the site of the ancient 

 city of Crocodilopolis-Arsinoe. Here I spent a few days making arrangements for 

 work at the Lake, as the railway only runs as far as Abuksah, which is about 7 miles 

 from the lake, necessitating the use of camels to transport the heavy baggage. The 

 water of the Birket Karun is brackish and in some places unfit to drink. The lake 

 measures at the present day about 35 miles by 6 ; it lies about 130 feet below the 

 level of the sea and has an average depth of about 13 feet, although, according to some 

 of the fishermen, it is almost " bottomless " in places. 



In former times it had a much larger area, and according to recent calculations was 

 once 70 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and was used as a reservoir for the 

 surplus water of the inundation, which could be used later for purposes of irrigation. 

 The water is generally shallow near the edge, and reeds are abundant at the places 

 where the fresh water enters. 



Fig. 16. 























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The methods of fishing in general use are various, the most important being the 

 " ghazl-el-farkh," a net composed of pieces of about 40 feet in length and 4 in width 

 with a 4-inch mesh, the floats being hollow cylindrical pieces of wood and the weights 

 rings of pottery (see diagram, fig. 16). This net is chiefly used for catching big 

 " Leffash " (Lates niloticus) and is worked by a company of men each of whom supplies 

 a length ; after the day's work is over the net is usually taken to pieces, each length 

 being washed and dried by its proprietor. Sometimes as many as 80 lengths are 

 joined together. 



Another of these long nets with a 2^-inch mesh is known as the " ghazl-el-bolti ' 

 and is chiefly used for catching fish called Bolti (Tilapia). Both these nets are 

 sometimes denoted by a number, this representing the number of meshes in a " dirrah/' 

 i. e. the length from elbow to the tips of the fingers X that from tips of the fingers to 

 the knuckle. These nets are used in much the same way as on the Delta, a large 

 piece of water being surrounded and the net hauled on to the boat or on shore. 



A third net, the " ghazl-el-rhy," used for catching various kinds of small fish, has 



