et Extraits des Mss. etc. Tom. VI. p. 356. Ritter's Erdkunde Th. II. p. 231. ed. 1818. Belon about 1546 describes Suez; and says an old castle lay near it upon a small hill, doubtless Tell Kolzum. Löwenstein and Wormbser in 1561, and Helffrich in 1565, speak of Suez as a fortress, near which vessels lay; and the latter describes it as consisting of several block-houses built of the trunks of palm-trees, and filled in with earth, with a few dwelling-houses. In 1647, according to Monconys, (I. p. 209,) it was a small place in ruins, inhabited chiefly by Greek Christians. In Niebuhr's time it was still without walls; Reisebeschr. I. p. 219. For the older travellers above cited, see Reissbuch des heiligen Landes, fol.

The head of this Gulf has always been a place for building fleets. Ælius Gallus in his celebrated expedition into Arabia Petraea, built at Cleopatris a fleet, first of 80 large galleys, and then 130 smaller vessels; Strabo XVI. 4. 23. During the crusades also, the brother of Saladin caused a fleet to be hastily built at Kolzum against the Christians who had attacked Ailah. See Wilken's Geschichte der Kreuzzüge, III. ii. p. 223.

NOTE IX. Page 73.

WADY TAWARIK. Our guides of the Tawarah, and also intelligent natives of Suez, knew no other name for the valley S. of Jebel 'Atâkah, than Wady Tawârik. By the French engineers, and also by some writers before them, it is called Wady er-Ramliyeh, 'the Sandy.' Niebuhr and a few earlier travellers speak of the part near the Gulf under the name of Bedea; though the former says his Arab guides did not know this name. See Le Père in Descr. de l'Egypte, Et. Mod. I. p. 47. Niebuhr's Beschr. von Arabien, p. 409.

The name Wady et-Tih, 'Valley of Wandering,' which has sometimes been given to the same valley by travellers, seems not now to be known; and if it ever actually existed among the Arabs, it was probably of Christian origin. Monconys in 1647 travelled through the valley, but did not hear this name. Pater Sicard, the Jesuit Missionary in Egypt, who wrote an Essay to prove that the Israelites passed by way of this valley, (which he himself visited in 1720,) does not mention the name Tih; although it would have afforded him so opportune an argument from tradition in support of his theory. The name therefore probably did not exist at that time; and may perhaps have come into partial use among the Latins and their Arab dependents in con

sequence of this very theory. Yet neither Pococke nor Niebuhr has the name, as applied to this valley. The latter indeed gives the name Etti to the part of the desert plain opposite to its mouth, on the east side of the Gulf; of which however no trace now exists. Reisebeschr. I. pp. 229, 251. See Nouv. Mem. des Missions, T. VI. p. 1, seq. Paulus' Sammlung der Reisen, etc. Th. V. S. 210, seq.

NOTE X. Page 74.

VALLEY OF THE SEVEN WELLS. In February 1827, the Rev. Mr. Smith, my companion, travelled with a caravan by the direct route from Belbeis to el-'Arish, passing by the well of Abu Suweirah. The following is an extract from a letter written by him at the time, describing the Valley of the Seven Wells. "We passed," he says, "one tract of land, the features of which were so distinctly marked as to excite considerable curiosity. It was a sort of valley a little lower than the surrounding country, into which we descended at a place with ruins about ten and a half hours from Belbeis. It extends Northwest and Southeast, descending towards the Nile, and narrowing in this direction. We were told that the Nile occasionally flows up this valley to the spot where we crossed it. Towards the Southeast it gradually ascends, and widens into an immense plain, the limits of which in that direction we could not discern. From this plain, the eastern extremity of the Suez mountain ['Atâkah] which now showed itself for the first time, bore S. by E. The soil of this tract was a dark mould. I do not doubt that water might be found in any part of it, by digging a few feet. Indeed after travelling upon it four and a half hours, we came to a well only twelve or fifteen feet deep, but sufficiently copious to water the [200] camels, and fill the water-skins, of the whole caravan, and containing the only sweet water that we found in the desert; all the other wells being brackish. It is called Abu Suweirah. Having seen how extensively artificial irrigation is practised in Egypt, I was easily persuaded that this whole tract might once have been under the highest cultivation." They passed the mounds of the ancient canal on the north side of this valley; and saw, on their right, tracts covered apparently with salt, like those mentioned by Seetzen; see Note XI.

NOTE XI. Page 74.

ANCIENT CANAL. FRENCH MEASUREMENTS. The statements in

the text, here and elsewhere, respecting the country along the ancient canal, are founded on the results obtained by the French engineers, as recorded in the great work on Egypt; and in a more convenient form in the article of Mr. Maclarin, Edinb. Philos. Journal, 1825, Vol. XIII. p. 274, seq. It is proper to mention, however, that strong doubts exist as to the accuracy of these results. I have been informed, that a learned foreigner when in Paris once endeavoured to get access to the original notes and measurements, in order to submit them to a re-examination; but without

success.

The French found the level of the Red Sea at Suez to be at high water 30 Fr. feet above the level of the Mediterranean; and at low water, 25 Fr. feet; giving a mean of 27 Fr. feet. The height of the Nile at Cairo, they found to be in ordinary floods 39 Fr. feet above the Mediterranean; and at its lowest point, 16 Fr. feet; giving a mean of 274 Fr. feet. Hence it appears that the mean height of the Nile at Cairo, is the same with that of the Gulf of Suez; while at ordinary times the Nile sinks several feet below the level of the Gulf.-But the tolerably accordant testimony of ancient writers, and especially that of Strabo, who wrote as an eye-witness, shows pretty conclusively, that the canal was supplied with water wholly from the Nile, and that the water of that river flowed through the whole length of the canal into the Red Sea. See the extract from Strabo in Note XIII. The testimony of Arabian historians as to the opening of the canal under the Khalif Omar, about A. D. 640, goes to support the same view; see especially Makrizi in Notices et Extraits des Mss. etc. Tom. VI. p. 333, seq.-This however would obviously be incompatible with accuracy in the French measurements, except at the height of the inundation of the Nile.

In A. D. 1810 Seetzen travelled with camels along the track of the ancient canal; and his notices of it are found in Zach's Monatl. Correspondenz, Vol. XXVI. p. 385, seq. He calls the Valley of the Seven Wells, Wady Sho'aib; and the Crocodile Lakes, el-Memlah. The marshes further East he speaks of as a saltplain of a white appearance, bounded in some parts by precipitous hills.

The mounds of the ancient canal commence, as we saw them, about an hour and a half N. of Suez. From this point Seetzen traced them two hours and a half with camels; and then travelled an hour and a half further, to the border of the salt-plain. This accords well with the distance from Suez to the Bitter Lakes as

given by the French, viz. 11 geogr. miles nearly. From this spot to el-Arbek, the point which the water of the Nile reaches in high inundations, Seetzen found the distance to be two hours; and the whole distance from Suez, eight hours ; l. c. p. 389. This traveller seems not to have been aware, that the French had found the level of this tract to be lower than that of the Gulf of Suez; for he remarks, that "this plain has everywhere a slight declivity towards the salt lake el-Memlah, which annually receives water from the Nile;" 1. c. p. 388.

The mounds of the canal now remaining are described as being from one or two feet to fifteen or twenty feet in height; the space between them being generally about thirty or forty yards.

NOTE XII. Page 76.

PELUSIAC NILE.-The Pelusiac arm of the Nile has usually been assumed as navigable, in consequence of a passage in Arrian, where he is describing the expedition of Alexander against Memphis; Exp. Alex. III. 1. 4. From Pelusium, he says, Alexander ordered part of his troops to sail with the fleet up the river to Memphis; while he with the remainder marched through the desert to Heliopolis, having the Nile on the right hand. O de sis μὲν Πηλούσιον φυλακὴν εἰσήγαγε, τοὺς δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν νεῶν ἀναπλεῖν κατὰ τὸν ποταμὸν κελεύσας, ἔς τε ἐπὶ Μέμφιν πόλιν, αὐτὸς ἐφ ̓ Ηλιουπόλεως ᾔει, ἐν δεξιᾷ ἔχων τὸν ποταμὸν Νεῖλον, καὶ . . . . διὰ τῆς ἐρήμου ἀφίκετο ἐς Ηλιούπολιν. But this language certainly does not necessarily imply, that the fleet sailed up the Pelusiac branch, or that it did not proceed for some distance along the coast and then ascend another branch. Just as at the present day, when it is said that a vessel sails from Alexandria up the river to Cairo, we do not understand that it follows the canal or the old Canopic arm, instead of running along the shore to the Rosetta or Damietta branch. All ancient writers appear to be silent as to the magnitude of the eastern arm of the Nile; nor is there any thing in the nature or appearance of the country, to show that it was formerly very much larger than the modern canal which occupies its place. The most definite mention of it is by Strabo, XVII. 1. 4. pare Rennell's Geogr. Syst. of Herodot. II. p. 171, seq.

NOTE XIII. Page 80.

Com

HEROOPOLIS. See on this whole subject the Memoires of Le Père and Du Bois Aymé in Descr. de l'Egypte, Et. Mod. I. p. 21,

seq. p. 187, seq. Also of Rozière, ibid. Antiq. Mem. I. p. 127, seq. Ritter's Erdkunde II. p. 234, seq. 1818.

One passage of Strabo is too remarkable and decisive not to be inserted here. Lib. XVII. 1. 25, 26, Αλλη δ' ἐστιν [διώρυξ] ἐκδιδοῦσα εἰς τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν καὶ τὸν ̓Αράβιον κόλπον, καὶ [κατα] πόλιν ̓Αρσινόην, ἣν ἔνιοι Κλεοπατρίδα καλοῦσι. Διαῤῥεῖ δὲ καὶ διὰ τῶν πικρῶν καλουμένων λιμνῶν, αἳ πρότερον; μὲν ἦσαν πικραί· τμηθείσης δὲ τῆς διώρυγος τῆς λεχθείσης, μεταβάλλοντο τῇ κράσει τοῦ ποταμοῦ· καὶ νῦν εἰσιν εὔοφοι, μεσταὶ δὲ καὶ τῶν λιμναίων ὀρνέων. Πλησίον δὲ τῆς ̓Αρσινόης καὶ ἡ τῶν Ηρώων ἐστὶ πόλις καὶ ἡ Κλεοπατρὶς, ἐν τῷ μυχῷ τοῦ ̓Αραβίου κόλπου τῷ πρὸς Αἴγυπτον κ. τ. λ. “Another canal] empties into the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf [at] the city Arsinoe, which some call Cleopatris. It also flows through the Bitter Lakes so called, which indeed were formerly bitter; but the said canal being cut, they were changed by the mixture of the river, and are now full of fish and water-fowl.-Near to Arsinoë is also Heroopolis and Cleopatris, at the corner of the Arabian Gulf next to Egypt." In two other passages the same position is assigned to Heroopolis; Lib. XVI. 4. 2, 5. Hence it very naturally gave name to the Gulf, Sinus Heroopoliticus.

At first view, the position here given to Heroopolis might seem inconsistent with the language of the Seventy and Josephus, who make Joseph go up (probably from Memphis) as far as to Heroopolis to meet Jacob, as he comes to Egypt from Beersheba. Sept. Gen. xlvi. 28, 29. Joseph. Ant. II. 7. 5. But this difficulty is only apparent; for we found at a later period of our journey, that the present usual caravan-route from Hebron by way of Beersheba to Cairo, still passes by 'Ajrud.

NOTE XIV. Page 170.

MANNA. For the insect which occasions the manna, Coccus maniparus, see Ehrenberg's Symbola Physica, Insecta, Dec. I. Tab. 10. For a representation of the tamarisk, with the insects and manna upon it, see the same work, Plantae, Dec. ¡I. Tab. 1, 2. See also a full article upon the tamarisk by the same writer, in Schlechtendal's Linnaea, Journal für die Botanik, Bd. II. p. 241. Berlin 1827.

A chemical analysis by Prof. Mitscherlich of Berlin, showed that the manna of the tamarisk of Sinai contains no Mannin susceptible of crystallization; but is merely an inspissated sugar (Schleimzucker). Linnaea, ibid. p. 282.