But this is not the only difficulty. The province of Faiume, through which the supposed issue of the Nile must have been, is separated from the valley of the Nile, by a continuation of the ridge of hills that forms the western wall of Egypt; and through which, (if I understand the matter right,) the passage to the lake of Kairun, by _Illahon_ and _Hawara_, has been made by art. At all events, this canal or passage cannot be regarded as the continuation of the ancient bed of the Nile from _Upper Egypt_ into the _Bahr-bela-ma_, because of its confined dimensions: and of course, all idea of the Nile having detached a _western branch_, or thrown itself into the bed of the lake of Kairun and Bahr-bela-ma, is done away; for even admitting the continuity of these, the hollow that contains the lake, and also constitutes the province of Faiume, must be regarded as a kind of _cul de sac_ to the Bahr-bela-ma, whilst the hills by Illahon existed. And hence I took occasion to remark, elsewhere,[31] that it is possible, that the famous work of the lake Moeris, which now forms a kind of enigma amongst the learned, might have been formed by the very act of cutting through a low part of the western wall of Egypt, and letting the water into the hollow space which now contains the lake of Kairun. But had the Nile ever formed its alluvions adjacent to the Gulf of the Arabs, there would surely be some traces of them remaining, either along the shore, or in the sea itself. It may be remarked, that there are other valleys or hollows along the course of the Nile, almost equally extensive with that of Faiume, but to whose level the Nile is not _yet_ risen. And here it may not be out of the way to repeat what has been said in another place,[32] that although the Nile in these times, when swoln, flows into the lake Kairun, yet there must have been a time, when its bed was too low to reach it: for it cannot be doubted, that its bed has been gradually rising, by deposition; a necessary effect of the protrusion of the lands of the Delta into the sea: and, of course, that it _will continue_ to rise.[33] The progress of the moving sands of Lybia, eastward, into the Bahr-bela-ma, &c. is treated of by General Andreossy, Mem. page 247, and is also well worthy of attention. This movement appears to take place, very generally; and Mr. Horneman remarks, that in their line of course, every obstruction gives rise to a sand hill; but he more particularly remarks a smaller kind of sand hill, formed by the obstruction of the trunks of palm trees; and so high as to leave to the view, nothing more than the topmost branches. II. _Siwah._