Some inconsiderable ruins are at Aboukeer, and seem to denote, that it was the former situation of an ancient city. There is here also an inlet of the sea; and the distance, something less than four leagues from Alexandria, warrants us to say that it is Canopus, one of the most ancient cities in the world; its ruins, notwithstanding the neighbourhood of the branch of the Nile, which goes by that name, have not yet been covered by the increase of the land of Egypt. At Medea, which we suppose, by its distance of near seven leagues, to be the ancient Heraclium, is the passage or ferry which terminates the fear of danger from the Arabs of Libya; and it is here [68]supposed the Delta, or Egypt, begins. Dr Shaw[69] is obliged to confess, that between Alexandria and the Canopic branch of the Nile, few or no _vestiges_ are seen of the increase of the land by the inundation of the river; indeed it would have been a wonder if there had. Alexandria, and its environs, are part of the desert of Barca, too high to have ever been overflowed by the Nile, from any part of its lower branches; or else there would have been no necessity for going so high up as above Rosetto, to get level enough, to bring water down to Alexandria by the canal. Dr Shaw adds, that the ground hereabout may have been an island; and so it may, and so may almost any other place in the world; but there is no sort of indication that it was so, nor viable means by which it was formed. We saw no vegetable from Alexandria to Medea, excepting some scattered roots of Absinthium; nor were these luxuriant, or promising to thrive, but though they had not a very strong smell, they were abundantly bitter; and their leaves seemed to have imbibed a quantity of saline particles, with which the soil of the whole desert of Barca is strongly impregnated. We saw two or three gazels, or antelopes, walking one by one, at several times, in nothing differing from the species of that animal, in the desert of Barca and Cyrenaicum; and the [70]jerboa, another inhabitant of these deserts; but from the multitude of holes in the ground, which we saw at the root of almost every plant of Absinthium, we were very certain its companion, the [71]Cerastes, or horned viper, was an inhabitant of that country also. From Medea, or the Passage, our road lay through very dry sand; to avoid which, and seek firmer footing, we were obliged to ride up to the bellies of our horses in the sea. If the wind blows this quantity of dust or sand into the Mediterranean, it is no wonder the mouths of the branches of the Nile are choked up.