From the western extremity of the lake it passes over wet rnarshy ground, covered with a salt crust from 4 to 6 inches in thickness. It then passes through a wood of dates for half a league ; and has a number of cisterns on the northern side, which appear of Greek or Roman .construction, but much disfigured by modern repairs. In approaching Alexandria, there are numerous trunks of granite columns, and other fragments of Greek ar chitecture. At half a league from the city., the bottom of the canal is a little lower than the surface of the sea, but from this place to the enclosure of the Arabs it has a counter slope. At last the canal, with a breadth of from 22 to 27 yards, turns the base of a small hillock upon which Pompey's Pillar stands. It afterwards be comes very narrow, and terminates in the old port in shape of a drain.
Before the water enters the canal of Alexandria, it has risen, in common seasons, 13 feet above the lowest Nile. The mean depth in the canal, when the water has reached the greatest height, is about two feet. The rise of water is first perceived at Rhameneh between the 10th and 20th July, Towards the middle of August it has reached the' bottom of the canal; it takes a month afterwards to reach Alexandria, being 20 leagues, though in a straight line only 15 leagues. The waters reach Alex andria about the 25th September, and as the Nile has begun to decrease at Rhameneh since the 15th of this month, it follows, that the navigation cannot continue longer than 20 to 25 clays.
Under the Alamelukes, the commandant of the pro lince encamped on the banks of the Canal, from •Ite moment the water began to run until the cisterns of Alexandria were filled. Ills object was to prevent thc Arabs of the Desert, and the inhabitants of the villages, from cutting the banks ; also to wa.tch if too great a quantity threatened to destroy any parts of the banks. When the cisterns of Alexandria were full, he went into the city and demanded a verification. They filled a vase with water from the cisterns. This vase was sealed by those who made the verilicatio», and served as an :tut:s tation to the commandant at Cairo that the water was good, and the cistetns full.
The French, by cleaning out ahout 18 inches of nun!, passid with small boats to Ithameneh for about six wicks, wl en the Nile was at its height.
It apprars from Strabo and others, that this canal was anciently drawn from the Canopie branch of the Nile.
near the city of Chedia, at the distance of about 6 ot 8 leagues.
The canal, although at present it passes through ruins and deserts, and has ceased to be navigable, was, not nrore than 460 years ago, in the midst of the riches of Egypt, and was lormerly the channel through wl.ich, during the Greek and Roman empires, the productions of Egypt and the eastern world were carried to Alexan dria fur exportation to Europe.
At Rosetta there was found, at 4 feet under the sur face of the ground, a granite table with three inscrip tions : 1. Hieroglyphics; 2. Syrian ; 3. Greek. The two latter have the same meaning, which is, that Ptole my. Eupator had employed 71 years, to clear cut and re new all the canals of Egypt.
With regard to the great canal from the river Nile to the Red Sea, we shall take the sundry authorities as they stand in point of priority of time. 1st, Herodo tus (lib. ii.) says, a canal was drawn from the Nile above the city of Bubasto ; that it passed around a mountain from the west to the east, and afterwards turned south to the Red Sea. He attributes its commencenient to Necos, the son of Psarnmaticus, 616 B. C., but gives its completion to Darius Hystaspes, 521 B. C. It was four days navigation, and four ships could pass abreast.
2. Aristotle (Met. lib. i. ch. 14 ) says, a king hacl at tempted to draw a canal from the Red Sea to the Nile, but abandoned the work, because the Red Sea was high er than the land of Egypt.
3. Diod. Sicul. (lib. ii.) attributes it to Necos, but says it Wa S completed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 280 B. C. whet. it was named the River of Ptolemy ; but he makes it communicate with the PcIusiac branch of the Nile.
4. Strabo agrees w ith Herodotus ; says it was 100 cubits in breadth, with depth sufficient to carry large vessels, (lib. i. and ) He adds, that it tcrminated at the Arabic Gulf, and that in his time the merchants of Alexandria found an outlet from the Nile in the Ara bic Gulf, to go to India.
5. Pliny says this canal was begun by Sesostris, or Sesac, (370 B. C.) neat. Bubasto, (lib. xxvi. ch. 29 and 33.) and went to the Red Sea ; that Darius proceeded with it afterwards, and Ptoieiny II. after Datius. Ile adds, that the latter conducted the canal by the bitter fountains, but ceased, having bcen told that the Red Sea was three cubits higher than the land or Egypt.