There are many canals, from four to six and eight feet deep, and wide enough to convey a considerable body of water. These pass off from the river, and from these, smaller channels pass in various directions, so as to divide much of the surface into lots or small fields. These were much more observable at some places than at others. The design of these channels, probably, was to bring the water more generally over the ground than it would otherwise come; or when the Nile did not rise high enough to cover the field, the water, by means of these small canals, would pass in so many directions through the district, as, by percolation, to moisten the ground more generally than it otherwise would do. There were along the river a great many water-melons, cucumbers, and other vegetables. It reminded me of the complaint of Israel, in the wilderness, that they were deprived of the melons and cucumbers of Egypt. Num. xi. 5. The Nile winds a good deal. It has many of those long sweeps that characterise the Ohio and Mississippi; and as the whole country is alluvial, the water at those turns washes away the banks against which it strikes, while, on the opposite side of the river, a shoal or a sand bank is formed. In these places, and they increased as we ascended, considerable districts lay along the edge of the water, and only a few feet above it, and on them the vegetables above named, with many others, were raised in great numbers. There was usually a small place in these garden spots built to protect a person from the rain, whose office it is to prevent pillage, and sell the vegetables to boat-men and passengers; for almost all the travelling from Alexandria to Cairo is done in boats on the Nile. It reminded me of the "cottage in a vineyard,"--"a lodge in a garden of cucumbers." A little more than half-way, from Alexandria to Cairo, on the western side of the river, we saw the end of a new and much larger canal, now being made in a more direct course to Alexandria. It will probably intersect the Mahmudieh canal, at some point south of Alexandria. The southern end is near where the sands have almost covered the district west of the Nile. Whether it will pass into the sandy district, and thus reclaim some of it, and prevent the farther encroachments of the sand, I know not. There is no doubt that tillage extended much farther to the west, in some places, formerly, than at present. The canals and means of irrigation have been neglected, and the sands have spread over considerable districts; some of these might no doubt be reclaimed, were a proper mode followed with respect to them. This will hardly be done at present, as there are large parts of Egypt now irrigated, that lie neglected; the population, with their idle habits, are not sufficient to cultivate the whole. For a considerable distance on the west of the river the sands from the desert covered the banks, and ran down to the edge of the water; it was a very white, fine