LAKE MENZALA. 
139 
slime, and shells 5 and, in some places, is covered 
with moss and reeds. As it communicates both 
with the sea and the Nile, it abounds with sea 
and river fish, and is the resort of innumerable 
aquatic fowls. The lake Menzala, towards the 
land, assumes the form of two large gulfs, divided 
by a promontory, while their basins are separated 
from the sea by a low and narrow bank, which 
seems to have been accumulated by the lateral 
action of the current that sets along the shore of 
the Delta. The lake communicates with the sea 
by two channels, which are supposed to represent 
the Mendesian and Tanitic mouths of the Nile. 
The first is situated at the distance of twenty-one 
G. miles from the Phatmetic mouth, or that of 
Damietta ; while the Tanitic or Saitic mouth lies 
about seventeen G. miles beyond it. The Mende- 
sian branch of the Nile, which enters the lake, 
is supposed to correspond to the canal of Man- 
sura ; and Andreossi imagines, that the canal of 
Moez, which overflows the province of Sharkie, 
represents the course of the Tanitic branch. 
The openings of the lake which comr/iunicate 
with the sea are shut up by shallow bars, which 
are only pervious to light vessels. Andreossi ob- 
served two other communications with the sea, 
which were closed by factitious mounds. The 
narrow bank, or stripe of land which separates 
the lake from the sea, and extends from Da- 
; 
