crossed it. The place alluded to by the General, may be about
Biljoradek, and in one of the swampy tracts spoken of above: or if
the three journies are meant from Terane, as is not impossible,
that it will- be about Mogara. At all events, we must regard this
valley as the place intended by General Andreossy.
This gentleman's description of the Bahr-bela-ma is well worthy
of attention, but is too long to be inserted here. He found in it,
petrified wood, of the same kind with that seen by Horneman, in
the adjacent sandy Desert :* but both of them remark, that the
wood has not any mark of a tool on it, as some have fancifully
imagined, and have thence regarded the valley as an ancient bed of
the Nile, deserted about the date of the foundation of Memphis.
No doubt the hollow in question very much resembles a watercourse,
both as .to form, and from its having pebbles in it; but
■where is-the body of fresh water that could have scooped it out, or
have filled it h General Andreossy reckons it nearly nine British
miles in breadth, and exceedingly deep; and the Nile does not at
any time carry a body of water, equal,to one mile in breadth! What
the state of things was, at an earlier period of the world, we know
not, but within the reach of history, the Nile appears to have been
much of the same bulk, as at present.
But this is not the only difficulty. The province of Faiume,
through which the supposed issue of the Nile must have heen, is-
separated from the valley of the Nile, by a continuation of the ridge
of hills that forms the western wall of Egypt; and through which,
(if r understand the matter right,) the passage to the lake of Kairun,
by Illahon and Hawara, has been made by art. At all events, this
* See above, p. 8.
canal or passage cannot be regarded as the continuation of the
ancient bed of the Nile from Upper Egypt into the Bahr-bela-ma,
because of its confined dimensions : and of course,, all idea of the
Nile having detached a western branch, or thrown itself into the bed
of the lake of Kairun and Bahr-bela-ma, is done away; for even
admitting the continuity of these, the hollow that contains the lake,
and also constitutes the province of Faiume, must be regarded as a
kind of cul de sac to the Bahr-bela-ma, whilst the hills by Illahon
existed. And hence I took occasion to remark, elsewhere,* that it
is possible, that the famous work of the lake Moeris, which now
forms a kind of enigma amongst the learned, might have beerr
formed by the very act of cutting through a low part of the western
wall of Egypt, and letting the water into the hollow space which
now contains the lake of Kairun. But had the Nile ever formed its
alluvions adjacent to the Gulf of the Arabs, there would surely be
some traces of them remaining, either along the shore, or in the-
sea itself.
It may be remarked, that there are other valleys or hollows along
the course of the Nile, almost equally extensive with thatpf Faiume,
but to whose level the Nile is not yet risen. And here it may not
be out of the way to repeat what has been said in another place,-f
that although the Nile'in these times, when swoln, flows into the
lake Kairun, yet there must have been a time,, when its bed was too
low to reach i t : for it cannot be doubted, that its bed has been
gradually rising, by deposition ; a necessary effect of the protrusion
of the lands of the Delta into the sea - and, of course, that it will
continue to rise. J.
* In the Geogr. of Herod, p. 504;. ' +' Ibid.
X This is explained in the observations on the alluvions of rivers, in* the same
hook, Section xviii.