285 
from the Nile to the Red Sea. 
die water of the Nile, which it joined a little above Bubastis, 
and that it terminated in the Arabic Gulf, near the city of Pa- 
tumos, ( Euterpe , 158.) Diodorus informs us, that the work 
was begun by Necos, carried on by Darius, but afterwards 
abandoned, in consequence of the danger of Egypt being inun- 
dated by the Red Sea ; that it was completed by Ptolemy the 
Second (Philadelphus), that it extended from the Gulf to the 
Bay of Pelusium, and that it had sluices, or gates, ingeniously 
constructed, which were opened to afford ships a passage, and 
quickly shut again, {Lib. i. § 1.) According to Strabo, certain 
lakes above Pelusium in the desert were connected with the Red 
Sea at Arsinoe by one canal, and with the Delta by another. 
The waters of these lakes, which were originally bitter, had 
been sweetened by the introduction of those of the Nile. The 
canal was completed by Ptolemy, who constructed a Euripus 
(a single, or perhaps a double gate), which afforded an easy 
passage from the sea to the canal, and from the canal to the sea, 
(Lib. 17.) Pliny states, that the canal reached only from the 
Nile to the Bitter Lakes, and was 37,500 paces, or 34 English 
miles, in length ; its extension to the Red Sea having been found 
to threaten inundation to Egypt, the soil of which was 3 cubits 
lower than the waters of that sea, (Lib. xvi. c. 29.). These state- 
ments, which are apparently contradictory, may be reconciled 
with one another, by supposing, that the canal had been repeat- 
edly opened from the Delta to the Gulf ; but the communication 
with the sea al Arsinoe being difficult, and only available for 
ships during a very limited period, this southern section of the 
canal had been often closed up again and abandoned. The 
other section, including the Wadi and the Bitter Lakes, would 
be serviceable for a much longer period, and might be kept 
more generally open. The difference of level between the river 
and Gulf was obviously well understood ; and the waters of the 
latter, if admitted in sufficient quantity, would really submerge 
the Delta, as Diodorus and Pliny believed. In this, as in va- 
rious other cases, we find that statements of ancient writers, 
which have been hastily rejected as fabulous by some moderns, 
are rigidly correct. 
The accounts which the ancients have left us as to the dimen- 
sions of the canal are not very wide of the results deduced from 
VOL. XIII. NO. 26. OCTOBER 1825. U 
