t to be sinking and shrinking near Alexandria to rise
in the neighbourhood of Port Said.

** Others, as for example Schweinfurth, are more moderate
in their views, and think "that it must have taken about
twenty thousand years for that alluvial deposit which now
forms the arable soil of Egypt to have attained to its
present depth and fertility."

This figure is certainly exaggerated, for the alluvium would gain on
the shallows of the ancient gulf far more rapidly than it gains upon the
depths of the Mediterranean. But even though we reduce the period, we
must still admit that the Egyptians little suspected the true age of
their country. Not only did the Delta long precede the coming of Menes,
but its plan was entirely completed before the first arrival of the
Egyptians. The Greeks, full of the mysterious virtues which they
attributed to numbers, discovered that there were seven principal
branches, and seven mouths of the Nile, and that, as compared with
these, the rest were but false mouths.

[Illustration: 006.jpg THE MOUTH OF THE NILE PREVIOUS TO THE FORMATION
OF THE DELTA.]

As a matter of fact, there were only three chief outlets. The Canopic
branch flowed westward, and fell into the Mediterranean near Cape
Abukir, at the western extremity of the arc described by the coast-line.
The Pelusiac branch followed the length of the Arabian chain, and flowed
forth at the other extremity; and the Sebennytic stream almost bisected
the triangle contained between the Canopic and Pelusiac channels. Two
thousand years ago, these branches separated from the main river at the
city of Cerkasoros, nearly four miles north of the site where Cairo now
stands. But after the Pelusiac branch had ceased to exist, the fork of
the river gradually wore away the land from age to age, and is now some
nine miles lower down.[*] These three great waterways are united by a
network of artificial rivers and canals, and by ditches--some natural,
others dug by the hand of man, but all ceaselessly shifting. They silt
up, close, open again, replace each other, and ramify in innumerable
branches over the surface of the soil, spreading life and fertility on
all sides. As the land rises towards the south, this web contracts and
is less confused, while black mould and cultivation alike dwindle, and
the fawn-coloured line of the desert comes into sight. The Libyan and
Arabian hills appear above the plain, draw nearer