MR. HORNER ON THE ALLUVIAL LAND OF EGYPT. 
113 
from Cairo to the sea in a direct line is 106 miles, and from Rosetta to Dainietta, or 
the base of the triangle, in a direct line, eighty-two miles, but following the sinuosities 
of the coast about ninety miles. In earlier times, when the Nile flowed in the Valley 
of the Waterless River, and when a branch entered the sea at Pelusium, near the 
modern Tineh, the base of the Delta must have been about I 70 miles, but the low 
land extends beyond each of these limits*. 
Lower Egypt is thus a vast plain of alluvial land, with scarcely any natural eleva- 
tions except the sand-hills near the coast ; it is furrowed in every direction by a mul- 
titude of natural and artificial canals. The central part is composed of the mud 
deposited by the Nile, and of sand brought down by the inundations, or blown from 
the desert on either side ; and all around the plain the boundary of Lower Egypt is 
composed of quartzose sands, that are generally white on the east, and reddish-white 
on the west, and the ground which these sands cover is at a higher level than that 
of the Nile at its highest inundations. 
Two great shallow lakes, Burlos and Menzaleh, occupy the greater part of the 
base of the modern Delta, besides smaller lakes, lagoons and swamps, behind the 
sand-hills that line the coast. These sand-hills rest upon a reef which forms a 
powerful dam against the encroachments of the sea, and which Russegger describes 
as being in a continual state of formation and waste ; as being a calcareous stone of 
a dirty grey colour, composed of sand mixed with worn fragments of ordinary marine 
testacea, mingled with microscopic shells, many of the latter being of freshwater and 
land origin, brought down by the Nile, thrown up again by the sea and mingled with 
marine shells. In structure the stone is not usually very coherent, but in some 
places it is hard enough to be used for building, and in ancient times numerous 
catacombs were excavated in it, some of which are the so-called baths of Cleopatra. 
At the island of Philee, about five miles above Assouan, may properly be placed the 
first entrance of the Nile into Egypt. The mighty stream has here a breadth of nearly 
one mile-f', but soon after it is divided into several branches, by the rocks that rise 
up in its bed to form the most northern of the rapids, the First Cataract, of which 
many occur in the higher parts of its course. The breadth of the river is here con- 
tracted to about a third of a mile. From the junction of the Atbara in latitude 
17’38 N. until it reaches the sea in latitude 31 ’25, or nearly fourteen degrees of lati- 
tude, the Nile does not receive a single tributary, with the exception of torrents after 
heavy rains in the lower parts of its course in Egypt, from the hills on either side. 
Assouan, according to the barometrical measurements of Russegger, is 300 feet 
* “ Although it has been usual to commence Egypt at Tineh (Pelusium), some geographers have restored it 
to the ancient point El Arish (Rhinocorura), the southern boundary of Syria. Between this and Tineh are 
the moving sands called by the Hebrews Sliiir, and by the Arabs A1 Jofar, bordered by the Serbonian Pool. 
From this notable landmark the shores of Egypt extend to Rasal Kanais, about 115 leagues to the w'estward. 
The central portion is the Delta.” — The Mediterranean, by Admiral Smyth, pp. 83, 84. 
t 1500 metres=1640 yards, by the Atlas of the Description de I’Egypte. 
iUDCCCLV. R 
