Frank Edwards, with an
adroitness that would have done honour to the hero of one of Percy
Marvale's melodramas, assured the angry father that Sibylla had come, at
his special request, to act as companion to his bride, and consult as to
the preparations for the approaching wedding. And on that same evening
Sibylla and Frank accompanied Mrs Elstree and her daughter to my house,
where it was arranged they were to remain for three weeks or a month,
till the ceremony took place.

A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CANAL WHICH CONNECTED THE NILE AND THE RED
SEA IN ANCIENT TIMES.

The questions relating to the different lines of communication between
Europe and India have been so frequently discussed of late, and such a
mass of ill-digested information on the subject has been printed, that
we shall not plunge into any discussion relating to the conflicting
opinions of the moderns, but proceed, without preface, to supply an
accurate history of the ancient canal which connected the Nile with the
Red Sea.[1] We are satisfied that any exact knowledge of what actually
existed in former times, and the precise object of the ancient
undertaking, are necessary, in order to form sound conclusions
concerning the future.

[1] For modern information, we refer our readers to the Reports on Steam
Navigation with India. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed.
14th July 1834, and 15th July 1837.

This canal, like every other in Egypt, had its origin in the formation
of a canal for irrigation, caused by an increased demand for arable
land, in consequence of the augmentation of the population. It was, in
its origin, one of the numerous canals which spread the waters of the
Nile for the irrigation of the land of Egypt.

The country between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea is intersected in
its longitude by a valley, which commences at Suez and joins the lake
Menzaleh and the eastern mouth of the Nile. The level of the Red Sea is
considerably higher than that of the Mediterranean. The difference at
high water is about thirty-two feet, six inches; and this difference is
seldom less than twenty-five feet, even at low water. The whole of this
valley would be inundated, and the waters of the Red Sea would flow into
the Mediterranean, through a series of lakes, were it not for a strong
embankment of elevated sand which forms the shore at Suez.

The existence of the bitter lakes in the lower levels of this valley
induced Aristotle,[1] a