In the absence of any evidence witnessing to the previous existence of such connections, and in the face of the fact that the Wadi Raiân contains no Nile deposit, I do not think that Cope Whitehouse’s Raiân-Mœris or Ptolemaic-Mœridis-Lacus theory can stand.
Failing better support to his theory, Mr. Whitehouse has called the Ptolemaic maps to his aid, and in his pamphlet on the subject he has reproduced the map of Egypt from the Atlas of Cl. Ptolemy, of which I here repeat the copy, with an outline map of the Fayûm, Wadi Raiân, and part of the Nile Valley, taken from ‘Egyptian Irrigation,’ by Willcocks, and which was compiled from the latest surveys in 1888 ([Plates XII.] and [XIII.])
Mr. Whitehouse considers that the Ptolemaic map has been most accurate in giving the exact shape of a lake in the desert, whereas the representation of the features of the much better known Nile and Nile Valley is evidently most incorrect, and much distorted in longitudinal and transverse dimensions.
If, however, any argument can be based on the shape of the “Mœridis Lacus” of Ptolemy, as compared with existing depressions, it seems to me that its shape resembles much more closely the outline of the Fayûm Province, with the Bahr Yûsuf indicated, than it does that of the much indented Wadi Raiân.
Plate XII.
EGYPT FROM THE ATLAS OF Cl. Ptolemy.
Mr. Petrie has furnished me with the following observations on the Ptolemaic maps.
Plate XIII.
