this undertaking and does not feel impelled to ask: 'How many thousands of workmen were employed, and how many years were spent in completing it?' Yet, considering the benefit and advantage brought to Egypt by this great work, none ever could sufficiently extol it according to what the truth of the thing deserves. For inasmuch as the Nile never kept to a certain and constant height in its inundation, and the fruitfulness of the country depended upon its uniform and regular supply, this lake was formed to receive such water as was superfluous, that it might neither immoderately overflow the land, and so cause marshes and stagnant ponds, nor, by flowing too little, prejudice the crops for lack of Accordingly the king dug a canal from the Nile to the basin, ten miles in length, and three hundred feet in breadth. Into this the water was allowed to run at stated times, and at other times it was diverted and turned over the cultivated land for seasonable periods, by means of sluices which were opened or closed, not without great labor and cost. This lake continues to the benefit of the Egyptians for these purposes to our own time, and is called the Lake of Myris or Meris to this day."

water.

The chief facts given by Diodorus had been anticipated by Herodotus and were confirmed by Strabo and Pliny. It was thus that the attack upon the credibility of Herodotus in reality involved the whole ancient world. Readers and purchasers of books must be held responsible for the demand which creates the supply. Cæsar and Cicero, as well as Plato and Aristotle, would share in the condemnation, although actual mention of Moeris found no place in their works.

The plain account had been flatly contradicted. It was supposed that the observer "embraced in his measurement the whole water system of the Fayoum," or had "confused units of measure," or "the direction of the canal with that of the lake." The accounts of Herodotus (B. c. 454), Diodorus (B. c. 20), Strabo (B. C. 24), Pliny (A. D. 50-70), were declared to be "widely different" and "irreconcilable." Finally the scientific world came to the unanimous conclusion that Moeris was "an artificial reservoir, forty-five miles round, twenty-five feet deep at high Nile and drained at low Nile when the waters had been used upon the fields of the Fayoum. It was everywhere stated that the position of the lake had been satisfactorily determined, in this sense, by M. Linant de Bellefonds. The map reproduced from the "Egypt" of Canon Rawlinson (1881) shows the accepted view.

The French Government had also printed upon its map (1882) that the Memoir of M. Linant contained all the information which could be desired. The name of Rawlinson, identified with wide-spread geographical knowledge, a thorough acquaintance with Herodotus and the current researches recorded by the Royal Geographical Society, is sufficient to show that no suspicion of error on Linant's part was then entertained.

It is not necessary or expedient to trace here the successive steps which have resulted in our possession of an immense body of accurate observations made by a series of experts. Cartography, geology, history and archæology are represented by men of high rank, while from the Premier of Egypt to the Prime Minister of Great Britain, documents have been issued showing

that the suggestions, embodied sometimes in little more than a pregnant phrase, are deemed to have a bearing upon the welfare of Egypt, the future of Africa, and the imperial interests of more than one Great Power. "Beside Lake Moeris," said Herodotus, "lies the Labyrinth. I visited this place and found it to surpass description." Beside the Fayoum and Raiyan basins in their physical conditions as developed by the engineer lies an edifice which has some of the romantic elements of the palace of Aladdin. The lamp which traces its walls reflects a thousand figures weird, and yet with many a familiar feature. In its twelve halls are throned twelve patriarchs. The history of one, at least, who dwelt on the banks of the Nile, is a household tale on the slopes of the Himalayas, and the prairies of the West. Into these sinuouș passages and recondite researches we may not now enter. The Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela points to this "land of the West" (Pi-Tum), and says: “Here is Pithom. Here are the remains of the buildings erected by our forefathers." Jablonski could write, but dared not publish, that the Fayoum was the land of Goshen, vainly sought by the modern scholar in the pestilential marshes of Menzaleh, or the scant strip traversed by the Ismailia canal. The only questions we are authorized to discuss are those purely geographical points, which were outlined by the President of this Society in the remarks in which he summarized the issues. raised in the former paper on Lake Moeris. He assumed that the geographical features set forth with such detail and minuteness were accurate and trustworthy. Further evidence on this point will be duly marshalled and original authorities cited. An examination had been

made of all the cartographical evidence from the time. of Claudius Ptolemy. The fac-simile of the map of Egypt from the edition printed in Rome in 1508, and similar to several of those manuscripts which abound in the Vatican and other European libraries, can now be compared with an official map, stamped with the approval of the International Jury at the Paris Exposition.

The undoubted existence of comprehensive and stupendous works, still used for their original purpose after the lapse of 4,000 years, shows what estimate should be formed of the capacity of the rulers of Egypt to design and its inhabitants to accomplish. It has an important bearing upon current philosophy and the strangely rash and incoherent assertions of rate of progress and development.

The wish of your President has been fulfilled. The condition of things in Egypt has brought about a survey of this neglected region, not merely with a view to gratify curiosity in respect of its past condition, but to point out the means of guarding against calamitous results from the action of the Nile. These investigations are apparently on the eve of being turned to practical account, and a part of the surplus of the inundation diverted into the Wadi Raiyān. The lesson has already been taken to heart in the New World. The Mississippi and the Rio Grande will yet be treated as the Nile. The engineers, who trace back their technical education in geometry to the engineering schools in the University of Memphis, are scanning with interest the tradition that makes the Patriarch Joseph the founder of their profession, and studying with profit the mighty works that were done of old and still endure.