TO GRAND CAIRO. .^7 
country, and maintaining unrivalled discipline CiiAi-'. 
among his crew, without the utterance of an i . 
oath by any man on board the ship he com- 
manded. 
We had convincing evidence of inaccuracy in inaccurncy 
oiir best maps of the Delta, and of the course of the of E-i/pt.' 
Nile, from the earliest comparisons we made in 
the country. That of Kaiiffer, published at Con- 
stantinople in 1799, is extremely incorrect; but it 
is less so than preceding documents. Soon after 
leaving /?o^e««, we passed some extensive canals, 
conveying water to lands above the level of the 
river : these are supplied by wheels, sometimes 
turned by oxen, but more generally by buffa- 
loes. They are banked by very lofty walls, 
constructed of mud, hardened by the sun. One 
of them, upon the western side of the river, ex- 
tended to the Lake Maadie. The land, thus Triple 
watered, produces three crops in each year ; the xh^Ddu. 
first of clover, the second of corn, and the third 
of rice. The rice-grounds are inundated from 
the time of sowing nearly to harvest : the seed 
is commonly cast upon the water, a practice 
twice alluded to in Sacred Scripture. Balaam 
prophesied of if rae/', that "his seed should 
(l) Numhers xxiv. 7- 
