says Bruce, that on the 25th of September, only three days af ter the autumnal equinox, the Nile is generally found at Cairo to be at its highest, and begins to diminish every day after. It would appear, then, that the river begins to swell in June, but the rise is not rapid or remarkable till early in July; that the greatest rise is attained about the autumnal equinox, and the waters remain upon the same level until the middle of October; and that, after this, the subsidence is very sensible, and the lowest point is reached in April.

The swell of the river varies in differents parts of the channel. In Upper Egypt, it is from thirty to forty-five feet; at Cairo, it is about twenty-three feet; whilst in the northern part of the Delta it does not exceed four feet, which is owing to the artificial channels, and the breadth of the inundation. The four feet of increase is, however, as requisite to the fertility of the Delta, as the twenty-three or thirty feet, and upwards, elsewhere.

As the riches of Egypt depend on the inundation of the Nile, all the circumstances and different degrees of its increase have been carefully considered; and by a long series of regular observations, made during many years, the inundation itself discovered what kind of harvest the ensuing year was likely to produce. The kings caused to be placed at Memphis a measure on which these different increases were marked; and from thence notice was given to all the rest of Egypt; the inhabitants of which knew by that means, beforehand, what they might expect from the ensuing harvest. Strabo speaks of a well on the banks of the Nile, near the town of Syene, made for that purpose.

The same custom is to this day observed at Grand Cairo. In the court of a mosque there stands a pillar, on which are marked the degrees of the Nile's increase: and the public criers proclaim daily in all parts of the city how much the river had risen. The tribute paid to the Grand Seignor for the lands, used to be regulated by the height of the inundation. Sixteen cubits is the proper height for the opening of the canal, by cutting down the dam, that so the waters of the inundation may enter the canal which runs through the midst of Cairo to the north-east, watering the plain to the extent of twenty leagues, and filling the Lake of the Pilgrims. If the river wants a single inch of this height, no tribute is due, the produce being then scarcely sufficient to pay the cultivator. If it increases to the height of twenty-three or twenty-four cubits, it is judged most favourable. If it rise beyond that, it

overthrows houses and destroys cattle; and it also engenders a host of insects, which destroy the fruits of the earth. The day on which it rises to a certain height is kept as a grand festival, and solemnized with fireworks, feastings, and all the demonstrations of public rejoicing; and in the remotest ages, the overflowing of the Nile was always attended with a universal joy throughout all Egypt, that being the fountain of its happiness.

But not only the fertility and riches of Egypt depend on the overflowing of the Nile; its very existence is owing to the same wonderful cause. We say wonderful, for although the phenomenon is by no means peculiar to the Nile, (for it is more or less common to all rivers whose volume is annually augmented by the periodical rains which fall within the tropics,) there is no river the annual swelling of which is so replete with important consequences, or so essential to the existence of a nation. The very soil of Egypt was, no doubt, originally formed by the earth brought down by the river from Abyssinia and the interior of Africa, and deposited during the annual inundation. That it has been progressively elevated in the course of ages, from this cause, is demonstrated by a number of distinct facts. Towns and monuments for instance, which are known from history to have been originally built on mounds, to secure them from the effects of the inundation, now lie so low in the plain as to be inundated every year. Thus, in the plain of Thebes, the alluvial mud has accumulated to the height of nearly seven feet around the statutes of Amunoph III., which were erected probably about B. C. 1430. From this, however, it would not appear that the increase of the soil was so great as some authors imagine. Dr. Shaw estimates this increase at rather more than a foot in a century, and he observes that Egypt must have gained forty-one feet eight inches of soil in 4,072 years. From this cause he apprehends that, in the process of time, the river will not be able to overflow its banks, and that Egypt, from being the most fertile, will become one of the most barren countries in the universe. But this hypothesis is not well founded. There is, in the wise order of Providence, an equilibrium preserved by a nearly corresponding elevation of the river's bed, so that the point of overflow is maintained nearly in the same ratio with the elevation of soil. This is demonstrated by the ancient Nilometer near Elphantine, mentioned by Strabo, and which is still existing. The highest measure marked upon it is twenty-four cubits, about

thirty-six feet; but the water now rises, when at its greatest elevation, nearly eight feet above this mark; while it appears, from an inscription on the wall, made a. D. 300, that the water then rose only a foot above that level. This gives an elevation of about five inches in a century; and it has been collected from other data, that the rise in the circumjacent soil is nearly in the same proportion.

To secure the blessings of the waters of the Nile, through the whole breadth of their country, the inhabitants of Egypt have, with great labour, in different ages, cut a vast number of trenches and canals in every part. * These canals are not opened till the river has attained a certain height, nor yet all at the same time; for if they were, the distribution of the water would be unequal. When the water begins to subside, these sluices are closed, and they are gradually opened again in the autumn, allowing the waters to pass on to contribute to the irrigation of the Delta. The distribution of the stream has always been subject to minute and distinct regulations, the necessity for which may be estimated from the common statement, that scarcely a tenth part of the water of the Nile reaches the sea in the first three months of the inundation. During the inundation, the whole country appears like a series of ponds and reservoirs; and it is not merely the saturation of the ground, but the deposit of soil which takes place during the overflow, that is so favourable to the agriculture of Egypt. The alluvial matter annually brought down and deposited by the Nile, is estimated by Dr. Shaw as equal to a hundred and twentieth part of the volume of water which it pours into the sea. This soil contains principles so friendly to vegetation, that it is used for manure in those places which have not been adequately benefited by the inundation; while, on the other hand, where the deposit has been abundant, the people mingle sand with it to diminish its strength. As soon as the waters have retired, cultivation commences; and where

* At what period the system of irrigating the Delta of Egypt by canals drawn from the Nile and its branches commenced, it is impossible now to determine. The Egyptians ascribe its invention to Osiris and Sesostris. Osiris, say they, enclosed the river on both sides with strong dykes, and erected sluices in proper places for letting out the waters upon the fields, as they had need of it. The probability is, that as the demand for Agricultural produce would increase with the population, so the idea of increasing the supply to the greatest possible quantity would suggest the propriety of embanking the river, and of drawing canals from it throughout the whole breadth of the country. And this would be done, not in the reign of one prince, but in several successive reigns.

the soil has been sufficiently inundated, very little labour is demanded. The seed is sown in the moistened soil, and vegetation and harvest follow with such rapidity, as to allow a succession of crops wherever water can be commanded.

The influence of the Nile upon the condition and appearance of the country can only be estimated by comparing its aspect in the season which immediately precedes, with that which follows the inundation. Before it occurs, it exhibits a parched desert of sand and dust, but afterwards a level verdant plain.

There cannot be a finer sight in nature than Egypt exhibits at two seasons of the year. In the months of July and August, if a traveller should ascend some mountain or one of the far-famed pyramids, he would behold a vast sea, in the midst of which numerous towns and villages appear, with several causeways leading from place to place, the whole interspersed with groves and fruit trees, whose tops only are visible. This view is bounded by mountains and woods, which terminate, at the utmost distance the eye can discover, the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined. On the contrary, in January and February, the whole country is, like one continued scene of beautiful meadows, whose verdure, enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The spectator behoids on every side flocks and herds dispersed over all the plains, with infinite numbers of husbandmen and gardeners. The air is then perfumed by the great quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees, and is so pure that breezes more salubrious or agreeable are not enjoyed in the wide expanse of creation. Contrasting the country at such a season with its inhabitants, we may adopt the language of the poet, who said of the isle and the natives of Ceylon, with beautiful simplicity:

"Every prospect pleases,

And only man is vile."-Heber.

"A man cannot," says De Bruyn, in his Travels, "help observing the admirable providence of God towards this country, who sends, at a fixed season, such great quantities of rain in Ethiopia, in order to water Egypt, where a shower of rain scarcely ever falls; and who, by that means, causes the most barren soil to become the richest and most fruitful country in the universe."

But the Egyptians did not look at this wonderful circumstance in such a pure and Christian light. Feeling their

entire dependence on the Nile, and prone by nature, like the rest of mankind, to look to secondary causes rather than to the infinitely great and good God, from whom all blessings are derived, the Egyptians were led to deify their Nile. Heliodorus says: 66 They paid divine honours to this river, and revered it as the first of their gods. They declared him to be the rival of heaven, since he watered the country without the aid of clouds and rains." The priests of Egypt told Herodotus, that one of their kings, Pheron, the son of Sesostris, was struck blind by the river god for an act of impiety. that at a time when the inundation had risen to the extraordinary height of more than eighteen cubits, a violent storm of wind having arisen, which greatly agitated the waters, the king, with a foolish temerity, took a javelin in his hand, and flung it into the midst of the foaming billows, for which he was immediately seized with a pain in his eyes, which made him blind for ten years. The principal festival of this imaginary god, was at the summer solstice, when the inundation commenced; at which season, by a cruel idolatrous rite, the Egyptians sacrificed red-haired persons, principally foreigners, to Typhon, or the power said to preside over tempests, at Busiris, Heliopolis, etc., by burning them alive, and scattering their ashes in the air for the good of the people. Bryant infers the probability that these victims were chosen from among the Israelites during their residence in Egypt.

How im

From all this we learn how excessive was the superstitious adoration which the Egyptians paid to their river. pressive, then, must those miracles have been in which their sacred river was turned into blood, and made to pour forth loathsome frogs in such abundance, that they covered the whole land of Egypt. See Exod. vii. 15-25, and viii. 1— 15. At the present day, though under the sway of the sterner Moslem religion, the reverence entertained for this stream, still called the Most Holy River, and the rites with which its benefits are celebrated, exhibit in the present inhabitants of Egypt a tendency towards the same superstitious form of adoration and gratitude.

One feature of the Nile remains to be noticed, namely, the qualities of the water. Ancients and moderns, with one voice, declare it to be the most pleasant and nutritive in the world. Why it should be so, Plato could not conceive, but he states such to be the case; and he relates that the Egyptian priests refrained from giving it to their bull-god Apis on account of its fattening properties.