rises above Memphis. I was anxious to know what became of the earth which was dug out of the lake, and made inquiry at those who dwelt on its shores." The answer given to this very natural question seems to have imposed on the credulity of the historian. They assured him that the soil was carried to the river, and washed down by the current into the sea, an explanation with which he was perfectly satisfied.

In reference to this narrative, which exhibits the usual characteristics of truth and simplicity, we may remark, that it is substantially confirmed by the statements of Diodorus Siculus and of Pomponius Mela. According to the former of these writers, the circumference of the lake was exactly that which has been already quoted from the more ancient historian; while the latter magnifies it to the extent of five hundred miles. They all agree in representing that its object must have been to save the country from the effects of an excessive inundation, and at the same time to reserve a supply of moisture for the arid lands in the vicinity, or for the wants of a dry season in the Delta. It may, however, be thought probable that it was rather to prevent an evil than to secure a benefaction; for we find that the water has not only a disagreeable taste, but is almost as salt as the sea,-a quality which it is supposed to contract from the nitre with which the surrounding land is everywhere impregnated.

Last century, according to Dr Pococke, Lake Moris was about fifty miles long and ten broad. The older French writers estimated its circumference at a hundred and fifty leagues,-a result not materially different from that of the English traveller. Mr

Browne, who was more lately in Egypt, thought that the length did not exceed thirty or forty miles, and that the greatest breadth was not more than six. It is hence manifest that the limits of this inland sea have been much contracted; and, moreover, that the process of diminution is still going on at a rate which is distinctly perceptible. In ancient times, there can be no doubt, the water covered a large portion of the valley of Fayoum, and, probably, when the inundation exceeded certain limits, found an outlet from the eastern extremity along the valley of the Bahr-bela-Maieh. It is equally manifest that the level of the Nile itself must, in those days, have been higher than it is at present, and that the branch which is now called Joseph's River must have conveyed no small share of its flood along the foot of the Libyan hills. At the remote epoch when the Delta was a bay of the Mediterranean, the main current of the descending flood would naturally seek an issue in the direction of those very hollows which continue to display the most convincing evidence that they were long washed as the channel of a mighty stream.

but

That the Nile originally flowed through the valley of the Dry River is admitted by the most intelligent among modern travellers. M. Denon, for example, regards as proofs of this fact, the physical conformation of the adjoining country,-the existence of the bed of a river extending to the sea, now dry, its depositions and incrustations, the depth of the lake,-its extent,-its bearing towards the north on a chain of hills which run east and west, and turn off towards the north-west, sloping down to follow the course of the valley of the dry

channel, and likewise the Natron Lakes. And, more than all the other proofs, the form of the chain of mountains at the north of the Pyramid which shuts the entrance of the valley, and appears to be cut perpendicularly, like almost all the mountains at the foot of which the Nile flows at the present day, -all these offer to the view a channel left dry, and its several remains.*

The opinion that the river of Egypt penetrated into the Libyan Desert, even to the westward of Fayoum, is rendered probable by some observations recorded in the second volume of Belzoni's Researches. In his journey to the Oasis of Ammon, hẻ reached one evening the Bahr-bela-Maieh. "This place is singular, and deserves the attention of the geographer, as it is a dry river, and has all the appearance of water having been in it,-the bank and bottom being quite full of stones and sand. There are several islands in the centre; but the most remarkable circumstance is, that, at a certain height upon the bank, there is a mark, evidently as if the water had reached so high: the colour of the materials above that mark is also much lighter than those below. And what would almost determine that there has been water there, is that the island has the same mark, and on the same level with that on the banks of the said dry river. I am at a loss to conjecture how the course of this river is so little known, as I only found it marked near the Natron Lakes, taking a direction of north-west and south-east, which does not agree with its course here, which is from north to south as far as I could see from the

summit of a high rock on the west side of it. The Arabs assured me that it ran a great way in both . directions, and that it is the same which passes near the Natron Lakes. If this be the case, it must pass right before the extremity of the Lake Moris, at the distance of two or three days' journey in a western direction. This is the place where several petrified stumps of trees are found, and many pebbles with moving or quick water inside.”*

In its present contracted dimensions, the Lake of Moris is called by the Arabs the Birket-el-Karoun, and is recognized at once as a basin formed by nature, and not by art. The details collected by Herodotus, and the other writers of Greece and Rome, must therefore have applied to the works which were necessary not only to connect the Nile with the lake, but also to regulate the ebb and flow of the inundation. The canal, called Joseph's River, is about a hundred and twenty miles in length; which, when it enters the valley of Fayoum, is farther divided into a number of subordinate branches, and supplied with a variety of locks and dams. There were two other canals communicating between the lake and the stream, with sluices at their mouths, which were alternately shut and opened as the Nile rose or fell. These, we may presume, were the achievements of Moris; which, when they are regarded as the work of an individual, having for their object the advantage and comfort of a numerous people, may justly be esteemed a far more glorious undertaking than either the Pyramids or the Labyrinth. In no circumstance, indeed, do the arts and civi

Belzoni, vol. ii. p. 183.

lization of ancient Egypt appear more manifest than in the care which was taken to improve the productive qualities of the soil by means of irrigation. A slight inspection of the plain of Fayoum, even in its present neglected state, affords the most convincing evidence that, in the days of the Pharaohs, no degree of labour was accounted too great, provided it could secure to the agriculturist a share in the blessing annually communicated by the Nile.

Near Beni Souef, in Middle Egypt, the river passes close under the foot of the Arabian hills, and leaves on the western side a large extent of fertile land. At this place the excellence of the system followed by the ancients is most distinctly perceived. The soil deposited during the inundation, as we have elsewhere observed, accumulates fastest near the river, and forms a ridge about a mile and a half broad, which is above the level of the water at all seasons. Between this elevation and the hills there is produced a similar rising of the surface; so that, from the Nile to the rocky barrier which bounds the Libyan Desert, there are two ridges and two depressions. Hence two kinds of canals became requisite, large ones in the bottom of these hollows, and a smaller class branching off on either side, to water the intermediate grounds. To render these last available, dikes of considerable magnitude were, at certain distances, constructed across the current of the main canals, which served both as dams to retain the water for a sufficient time, and as roads from village to village. Between Siout and Fayoum, accordingly, where the distance from the Nile and the mountains is the greatest, several principal canals, parallel to the river, were dug in an