Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt

or so long a time exercised such influence upon the w

t appears to be a large country, the greater part consists

ich spreads fan-like from Cairo to the sea. These two divisions of the land practically constitute Upper and Low

ld's history it has been a granary for the nations, for while drought and famine mi

me about? Let me

d was covered by the sea, which is plainly shown by the fossils embe

egan to cut its channel through the rock, and poured

untains which hem in its narrow valley, and at the same time depositing along its banks and in the d

y wastes, and often swept by hot desert winds, no rain falls to bring life to the

the Nile overflows its banks, re-fertilizing the soil, and filling the canals and reservoirs with water sufficient f

the low-lying delta is hardly raised at all above sea-level, and its monotony i

IGATED

e the Nile now seeks the sea. These interesting seaports, medi?val and richly picturesque, are no longer the prosperous cities they once were, for railways have diverted traffic from the Nile, and nearly

character, and is peopled by so many different races that it hardly seems Egypt at all; boys, however, would enjoy a visit to the Ras-el-Tīn Fort, which figured so largely in the bombardment of Alexandria, and a

"Battle o

occupants-half native, half Levantine-clamber on board, and clamour and wrangle for the possession of your baggage. They are noisy fellows, but once your boatman is selecte

or the imposing offices of the Suez Canal Company, and the fine statue to De Lesseps, recently erected on the breakwater, Port Said has little else to excite the curiosity of the visitors; built upon a mud-bank formed of S

in travels slowly along the canal

-boats disappear with their cargoes towards distant Damietta. Thousands of wild birds, duck of all kinds, ibis and pelican, fish in the shallows, or wit

contrast with the blueness of the canal, runs a little watercourse, reed fringed, and turbid in its rapid flow. This is the "sweet-water" canal, and gives its n

dering, and which thousands of Moslems annually traverse on their weary pilgrimage to Mecca; while in all

sheep and goats which browse upon the scrub. These are the descendants of those same Ishmaelites who sold Joseph into Egy

en and fertile, for we are quickly in the land of Goshe

pe. The scent of flowering bean-fields fills the air, and the hum of wild bees is heard above the other sounds of the fields. Palm groves lift their feathery plumes towards the sky, and mulberry-trees and dark-toned tamarisks shade the water-wh

ch as maize, barley, rice, and flax, and in the neighbourhood of towns and villages radishes, cucumbers, melons, and tomatoes are plentifully grown. Formerly wheat was Egypt's principal crop, but since its introduction by Mohammed Ali in A.D. 1820, cotton has taken first place

wly turned soil looks black against the vivid clover fields, in which tethered cattle graze; while large flocks of sheep of many col

sails of boats which appear to be sailing over the fields. In reality they are sailing on the canals which intersect the country in all directions, and by means of thousands of water-wheels and pumps supply the land with water. Though the Nile overflows its banks, its inundation does not cover the whole land; so g

es. Every here and there are little enclosures, spread with clean straw or mats, and surrounded by a fence of cornstalks or low walls of mud. These are the holy places where

banks. It is a pastoral land, luxuriantly green; and how beautiful it is as the night falls, and the last of the sunset lingers in the dew-laden air, wreathed with the smoke of many fires; and, as the stars one by one appear in the darkening sky, and the labour of the field ceases, the lowing cattle wend their