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HISTORY OF

Egypt, depending entirely on the overflowing of the river Nile for thewatering of the country, contained a great number of canals, dug to re-ceive and distribute the waters of the river, at the time of the inundation 'but the principal work of this kind, in that country, was the grand canalby which a communication was made between the Nile and the RedSea. This was begun, according to Herodotus, by Necos, the son ofPlammetichus, who desisted from the attempt on an answer from theoracle, after having lost one hundred and twenty thousand men in theenterprise.

Diodorus Siculus gives the following account of this canal

“ A canal of communication has been cut, which pastes from theGulph of Pelusium into the Red Sea. It was begun by Necos, son ofPlammetichus, and continued by Darius, king of Persia; but at lengthlaid aside by the advice of some persons, who asserted it would lay Egyptunder water, because the land was below the level of the Red Sea. Pto^kmy the Second, however, finished the undertaking j but constructed, inthe most convenient part of the canal, a dam or fluice,. ingeniously con-trived, which opened to give passage, and immediately closed again: onthat account the river, which discharges itself into the sea, near the cityof Arsinoe, has received the name of Ptolemy’s River.”

This canal was wide enough for two galleys to pass abreast, and fourdays failing in length; and was far superior, for utility, dimensions, andtrade, to any other canal in the then known world. The wealth of In-dia, Persia, Arabia, and the kingdoms on the coast of Africa, was broughtby snipping to the Red Sea, and, by this vast canal, conveyed to the Nile,whence it was distributed by the Mediterranean, not only to Greece andRome, but to all the surrounding nations, until the Portuguese discovered,a way to India by the Cape of Good Hope.

This canal after the time of Ptolemy fell into disuse, and policy had

probably