DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
the encroachments of the sand, the city is now 
insulated in a desert, and exhibits few vestiges of 
those delightful gardens and cultivated fields, 
which continued even to the time of the Arabian 
conquest, and are described with such enthusiasm 
by Abulfeda. A few stunted sycamores mark 
the course of the canal of Lower Egypt, but the 
eye searches in vain for " the banks covered with 
" perpetual verdure, and the stately date, whose 
pliant head, crowned with pendent clusters, 
" languidly reclines like that of a beautiful wo- 
man overcome with sleep."* The soil becomes 
sterile and sandy, in proportion to the distance 
from the canal ; and the district between Alex- 
andria and Rosetta retains the same general cha- 
racter of barrenness, though interspersed at inter- 
vals with villages and cultivated spots of ground. 
Various magnificent ruins are scattered over this 
arid track, formerly adorned with populous cities, 
where we must look for the site of Nicopolis, of 
Zephyrium, and probably of Thonis, at an early 
period of history the only port in Egypt open to 
commerce. Thonis is generally supposed to coin- 
cide in situation with Canopus, on the ruins of 
which is raised the village of Aboukir, at the dis- 
tance of 14 miles from Alexandria. The site of 
Canopus, formerly as famous for the dissolute 
* Abulfedse Descr. iEgypt. a Michaelis, p. 6. 
