156 DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
rounded. * This province is celebrated by the an- 
cients as surpassing the rest of Egypt in beauty, in 
riches, and in the variety of its productions. It 
was the only district which produced the olive, 
feium still displays traces of its ancient fertility, 
though, by the neglect of its canals, and the en- 
croachment of the sands of the desert, the arable 
soil is reduced to a third of its original extent. The 
climate, the soil, and the waters of the river, are the 
same, but the works of human art have changed. 
The soil produces various kinds of grain abundant- 
ly, and the olive and the vine are not quite extir- 
pated. Groves of fruit-trees and rose-bushes line 
the banks of the river ; and it is from this province 
that the immense consumption of rose-water by the 
Egyptians is supplied. When the waters of the 
river were regulated by canals, and the industry of 
the inhabitants aided the natural fertility of the 
soil, the province of Arsinoe, with its grey wastes 
of sand, and lofty rocks, which stretch with nu- 
merous intersections far into the desert, presented 
the appearance of " beauty smiling in the lap of 
" horror but since the canals have been ruined, 
agriculture neglected, and paltry cottages of mud 
formed out of the ruins of its ancient cities, the 
dreary aspect of desolation has predominated over 
the features of beauty. The cities of Crocodilo- 
* Strabo a Casaub. p. 11 63. 
