DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0382
366
draw between three and four feet of water. Several parties of
fishermen were stationed along the banks, some with drag nets,
others with easting nets; but in general they were divided into
two parties, one on each side of the river, holding the extremity
of a line, which was kept floating on the surface of the water,
and to which were attached, at equal distances, other lines with
a bait and hook. These they dragged backwards and forwards,
till each line had caught its fish. Each of the fishermen carried
all his clothes on his head, and a couple of gourds under one arm,
that he might be ready at an}' moment to plunge into the water
and cross to the other side whenever there was occasion. The
nets were in general dragged from a kind of raft made of doura
stalks, floated by gourds, and strong enough to carry two men
and their fish-baskets. The figures in general very much resem-
bled what we had seen in the grottoes in the Thebaic).
Here and there on the banks of the canal we observed the
ruins of some buildings of burnt bricks, which have probably
served as the foundations of bridges over it, or of jettees for pur-
poses of trade. Several round watch-towers, without a door or
window, and an open battlement at the top somewhat like our
Martellb towers, but constructed of crude bricks, were to be seen
in several of the fields as we approached the frontiers of the un-
cultivated ground in the Sharkieh. These have been erected for
the purpose of watching, and giving notice of the approach of the
Bedouins or other plunderers.
About a mile below Medshimy, the canal separates into two
branches, which meet again at the distance of a league more to
the North-east. Tin1 main stream is that to the North. Our
course lay along the more Eastern one, but we were unable to
proceed above seven or eight hundred yards for want of suffi-
cient depth of water. These two branches enclose the island
Micephoris,
draw between three and four feet of water. Several parties of
fishermen were stationed along the banks, some with drag nets,
others with easting nets; but in general they were divided into
two parties, one on each side of the river, holding the extremity
of a line, which was kept floating on the surface of the water,
and to which were attached, at equal distances, other lines with
a bait and hook. These they dragged backwards and forwards,
till each line had caught its fish. Each of the fishermen carried
all his clothes on his head, and a couple of gourds under one arm,
that he might be ready at an}' moment to plunge into the water
and cross to the other side whenever there was occasion. The
nets were in general dragged from a kind of raft made of doura
stalks, floated by gourds, and strong enough to carry two men
and their fish-baskets. The figures in general very much resem-
bled what we had seen in the grottoes in the Thebaic).
Here and there on the banks of the canal we observed the
ruins of some buildings of burnt bricks, which have probably
served as the foundations of bridges over it, or of jettees for pur-
poses of trade. Several round watch-towers, without a door or
window, and an open battlement at the top somewhat like our
Martellb towers, but constructed of crude bricks, were to be seen
in several of the fields as we approached the frontiers of the un-
cultivated ground in the Sharkieh. These have been erected for
the purpose of watching, and giving notice of the approach of the
Bedouins or other plunderers.
About a mile below Medshimy, the canal separates into two
branches, which meet again at the distance of a league more to
the North-east. Tin1 main stream is that to the North. Our
course lay along the more Eastern one, but we were unable to
proceed above seven or eight hundred yards for want of suffi-
cient depth of water. These two branches enclose the island
Micephoris,