ANCIENT EGYPT.

INTRODUCTION.

BETWEEN two vast deserts of shifting sand, that of Sahra, which overspreads the north of Africa, on the west, and the "waste howling wilderness" of Arabia, on the east, a narrow strip of fertile land runs along the western margin of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. It is a valley, in no place exceeding a few miles in width, bounded on each side by irregular hills or low ranges of mountains. The Nile, a magnificent river, which has its rise in the heart of Africa, rolls its waters through this valley to the sea, and by its periodical overflow imparts an astonishing fertility to what would otherwise be a portion of the barren desert that environs it. Rain is little known in this district; from the burning sands on either side the winds come dry and parching; the north wind from the Mediterranean, which prevails during the summer, passes over the low hills, and is not arrested until it strikes the lofty mountains of Abyssinia, when the clouds and mists

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which it carries descend in copious rains. The waters thus poured by many branches into the Nile, cause it annually to overflow its banks. About midsummer the river, which is ordinarily of a brilliant clearness, becomes turbid, and in a few days begins to rise. About the middle of July the water encroaches upon the land, and continues to increase until the end of September. Then it again recedes, and by the end of November has retired within its banks, leaving a rich deposit of fertilizing mud, which is far more valuable than any manure. rising of the Nile is looked for with great interest;

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sometimes it does not reach its ordinary height, so that much of the land is unfertilized, and distress and famine ensue. At other times its excess is even more terrific, inundating the towns and villages, destroying the growing crops, and drowning the cattle and many of the inhabitants. Belzoni thus describes the appearance of the country during the inunda