occurred to Herodotus, because, before the water of the inundation had deposited any or much mud in the district, the problem the engineer had to solve was, where he was to get sufficient earth from to make the dykes. Some travellers have spoken of the broad belt of shingly gravel on the south side of Birket el Keiroon, as a phenomenon that needs explanation. They ask—Where is the fertile soil that ought to be there? The answer, I suppose, is—That it may be found precisely where it ought to be, that is, at the bottom of the Birket el Keiroon. At times a great deal of water has passed through the canals, as formerly from Lake Mœris itself, into the Birket el Keiroon. This must have been very great on the occasion of such a mishap as a break in the dykes, which doubtless occurred at times, especially when things were going out of order. The beach, therefore, of the Birket el Keiroon has been very variable, having often been very considerably advanced. To whatever point the water rose, so far the wash of the waves, breaking on the beach, would float off the light particles of soil, and transport them to the quiet bottom of deep water. What there would be a difficulty in explaining would be, not the absence of, but the finding of Nile-mud soil in this belt that margins the Birket el Keiroon. In some parts of the old bed of the now dry Lake Mœris we find deposits of Nile-mud sixty feet thick. Again, this is what might have been expected. The water of the inundation flowed into the lake heavily charged with mud. The lake was still water. The sediment, therefore, was speedily deposited at the bottom. This process was repeated every year. Say that a film of the fourth of an inch was deposited each year from Amenemha to Strabo, the whole of the sixty feet will be accounted for. But this deposition of mud must also have been going on during the antecedent unrecorded centuries of the morass-period.