A P P E N D I X, No. V. - 493 
which the citizens of Alexandria refufed to do for themfelvevS, 
left the repair of all other public works fhould be expected from 
them, and the Beys would not do it for them, 
Dolomietis Letter, 
Vol. 20. p. 50. He fays the Alexandria of the Greeks was 
fituated on a tongue of land, formed by earth lately accumu- 
lated, when the city was founded. — -He means, I fuppofe, that 
the fea had left it but lately. This is poffible. The natural 
foil round the city is rock intermixed with fand. The vegetable 
mold appears to have been extraneous. If he fuppofe that 
diftrid, like the Delta, to have been a depofition of the river, 
this feems utterly improbable ^ all the circumftances are at va- 
riance,, which in fuch a cafe fhould be common to both. The 
land which divided the lake from the fea is a rocky ridge, which 
feems to have undergone no variation for a great length of time. 
The remark as to the column of Pompey is not new ; but I 
cannot agree that the capital and bafe are of bad tafte. The 
fharp relief of the foliage and mouldings is worn off by time, 
and it never was perhaps pofTible to exhibit on granite marble 
the finer ftrokes of the chiflel, but the proportions, though not 
thofe of the later Corinthian, are ftridly conformable to thofe 
of the pureft: age of architedure. What may have been dif- 
covered relatively to the obelifk by digging is uncertain ; but 
from a comparifon of this with the circumftances attending the 
obelilks at Thebes, it cannot be deduced that much is loft of its 
height. It muft have been ereded in the moft flourifhing ftate 
of the city, and while it remained in that ftate, it feems fcarcely 
probable 
