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ΌΙΑΙ' v.] STAIST FOR TUE CAKI'AS. 99 Although everything was thoroughly dried up, it was easy to imagine the effect of an inundation of the Pedias river, which had formed this delta of alluvium, precisely as the Nile on a more extensive scale has produced the Delta of Egypt. There were a few rwretched villages upon the flat, which were necessarily JPN the poorest scale, as they existed at the mercy of ι sudden inundation. The unhealthiness of this locality itiust be extreme during wet weather, as it is only [suitable to the constitutions of frogs and ducks. Upon arrival at higher ground on the opposite side of the )lain I looked back upon the agueish area over which we had passed, and I had little doubt of the great i':ngineering necessity that must be the first step to I sanitary reform in this pestilential neighbourhood. I As the river Pedias is a mere wayward torrent that never flows as a permanent stream, but only comes Mown in impulsive rushes from the mountains during neavy rains, it has no power to cleanse its original bed, luch as would result from a constant and clear current ; I ait, on the contrary, the heavy floods from the upper iountry, being the result of a sudden rainfall, are urcharged with earth washed down from the higher round and thickly held in solution. This vast mass f soil, which adds a corresponding weight to each allon of water, is carried forward according to the elocity of the stream, and is ready to deposit upon ke instant that the propelling power shall be withrawn. So long as the river is confined between narrow anks, the high rate of the current is sufficient to orce forward the thickened and heavy fluid ; but the ustant that the banks are over-topped and the river ^pands over an increased area, the rapidity is reduced, 'id the water, no longer able to contain the earth in II 2

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