154* DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
gleet of its canals, and the encroachment 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 abundantly, 
and the olive and the vine are not quite extirpat- 
ed. 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 5" 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- 
polis, Heraclea, and Ptolemais, are destroyed, and 
Feium itself, in the time of Abulfeda a consider- 
able city, has dwindled almost into insignificance. 
The bed of the lake Moeris, now denominated 
Cairun, is much inferior to its ancient size, though 
it is still about thirty leagues in circumference. 
The length is between thirty and forty miles, ancl 
