DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0416
400
in one spot with a view to impede the communication between
the besieged army in Alexandria and the Delta, was, when we
passed it, one hundred and ten yards in width, with sixteen feet
of water—a rapid current still leading into the Maraeotis. A
temporary bridge, formed of eighteen boats, kept up the com-
munication between one side and the other; but the supply of
Kile water to Alexandria has been by this measure totally cut
off. Whether the Turks or Mamalukes will ever exert them-
selves sufficiently to repair it, is very doubtful. The expense,
activity, and ability necessary for the undertaking are I think far
beyond their means ; and yet if it is not done, the inhabitants of
that city Avill be left to the casual rains of the winter for all the
water they will obtain, that is not brackish. Such a supply must
in any part of Egypt be very precarious, and is not likely to at-
tach the Mussulmans at least to the situation. The springs to
the Eastward of the town, which were opened by our troops,
might perhaps be sufficiently abundant for a population of 12
or 14,000 persons; but in very few of them was the water found
to be perfectly sweet, and they are all at a considerable distance
from the modern town.
I shall not attempt a minute description of Alexandria, or
its environs. This has already been done so amply by former
travellers, and by those who have related the events of the
late campaign in Egypt, that I shall only add my own reflec-
tions on what I saw during the short stay I was able to make
there.
The Western or old port of Alexandria is subject to two incon-
veniences ; that in a strong gale from the West, vessels lying
there will sometimes drive; and that the entrance is difficult
in consequence of the long reef of rocks, stretching with few
intervals almost from the point of Figuieres to that of Marabou.
The
in one spot with a view to impede the communication between
the besieged army in Alexandria and the Delta, was, when we
passed it, one hundred and ten yards in width, with sixteen feet
of water—a rapid current still leading into the Maraeotis. A
temporary bridge, formed of eighteen boats, kept up the com-
munication between one side and the other; but the supply of
Kile water to Alexandria has been by this measure totally cut
off. Whether the Turks or Mamalukes will ever exert them-
selves sufficiently to repair it, is very doubtful. The expense,
activity, and ability necessary for the undertaking are I think far
beyond their means ; and yet if it is not done, the inhabitants of
that city Avill be left to the casual rains of the winter for all the
water they will obtain, that is not brackish. Such a supply must
in any part of Egypt be very precarious, and is not likely to at-
tach the Mussulmans at least to the situation. The springs to
the Eastward of the town, which were opened by our troops,
might perhaps be sufficiently abundant for a population of 12
or 14,000 persons; but in very few of them was the water found
to be perfectly sweet, and they are all at a considerable distance
from the modern town.
I shall not attempt a minute description of Alexandria, or
its environs. This has already been done so amply by former
travellers, and by those who have related the events of the
late campaign in Egypt, that I shall only add my own reflec-
tions on what I saw during the short stay I was able to make
there.
The Western or old port of Alexandria is subject to two incon-
veniences ; that in a strong gale from the West, vessels lying
there will sometimes drive; and that the entrance is difficult
in consequence of the long reef of rocks, stretching with few
intervals almost from the point of Figuieres to that of Marabou.
The