m 
from the Nile to the lied Sea. 
Mediterranean ; for there is no natural barrier on the north, be- 
tween the Bitter Lakes and the lagoons, which extend to Be- 
lli slum. It may be admitted, that tides and winds might effect 
the separation supposed in the course of 2000 or S000 years ; 
but the progress of scientific research has taught us to refer to 
geological eras, antecedent to the existence of civil society, many 
changes of this kind, which were once considered as belonging 
to periods within the reach of history. 
The third section is nearly of the same length with the Wadi 
or valley through which it passes, viz. 62,300 metres, or thirty- 
nine English miles, extending from the Serapeum to Abaceh. 
This valley is from half a mile to two miles in breadth. Its bot- 
tom is about thirty feet below the surrounding desert, and near- 
ly as much below the high-water level of the Arabic Gulf. It 
contains about SO, 000 acres * of productive soil, which bears an 
abundant growth of shrubs and copse wood. Its breadth has 
once been much greater ; for the moveable sands of the desert, 
which form hillocks thirty or forty feet high on its south side, are 
swept into it by the wind, and are thus continually encroaching 
on the arable surface. The Wadi is believed, with good reason, 
to be the Land of Goshen , the original settlement of the Israelites 
in Egypt. Some ruins found at Aboukeshed, are supposed to 
mark the site of Hero or Heroopoles , an ancient town of some 
importance, and the Pithom of the Scriptures To exclude 
the floods of the Nile, this valley is shut by a transverse dike 
or levee at Abaceh, by another at Ras-el-Wadi, near the middle 
of its length, and by a third elevation, either natural or artificial, 
at the Serapeum, where it terminates. The canal runs along 
the north side, where the natural surface of the ground is some 
feet higher than the rest of the valley ; so that the water col- 
lected in it can be conveniently used for irrigation. In the 
western half of the valley, the canal is very entire. In its bot- 
tom, at some parts, the Arab cultivators raise corn ; at other 
parts, they employ it as a reservoir for rain-water. In the eas- 
* 20,000 arpents. The arpent is four-fifths of an English acre, 
-f- The reasons given in the French work for fixing Aboukeshed as the site of 
Hero, are very conclusive. The identity of this city with the Pithom of the Bible, 
and of the Wadi with the Land of Goshen, rests on the authority of Josephus and 
the Septuagint, but seems to carry a pretty strong probability with it. 
