Savary, in his "Letters on Egypt," says, in a note, that Ptolemy Philadelphus, marrying his daughter Berenice to Antiochus king of Syria, sent her water from the Nile, which alone she could drink, (Athenæus ;) that the kings of Persia sent for the waters of the Nile and sal ammoniac, (Dino, Hist. of Persia ;) and that the Egyptians are the only people who preserve the water of the Nile in sealed vases, and drink it when it is old with the same pleasure that we do old wine, (Aristides Rhetor.) The same author also bears his own testimony to the agreeable qualities of the water of the 'Nile. He says, "The waters of the Nile, also, lighter, softer, and more agreeable to the taste than any I know, greatly influence the health of the inhabitants. All antiquity acknowledges their excellence, and the people certainly drink them with a kind of avidity without being ever injured by the quantity. Being lightly impregnated with nitre, they are only a gentle aperient to those who take them to excess." Maillet is more enthusiastic in his description of the Nile water; affirming, that when a stranger drinks it for the first time, it seems like a drink prepared by art, and that it is among waters what champagne is among wines,

THE LAND OF GOSHEN.

With reference to this part of Egypt, so celebrated in the sacred page, Michaelis remarks:-"Concerning the situation of the land of Goshen, authors have maintained very different opinions; but have withal made it impossible for themselves to ascertain the truth by concurring in the representation of Goshen as the most beautiful and fertile part of Egypt. But is it at all probable that a king of Egypt would have taken the very best part of his territory from his own native subjects to give it to strangers, and these, too, a wandering race of herdsmen, hitherto accustomed only to traverse with their cattle the deserts and uncultivated commons of the east ?"

But, notwithstanding that it would appear from this learned writer doubtful where the land of Goshen was, and whether it was a rich land, it has been satisfactorily shown that the "best of the land," as applied to Goshen, means no more than that it was the richest pasture ground of Lower Egypt. It was called Goshen from Gush, in Arabic signifying heart," or whatever is choice or precious; and hence it was that Joseph recommended it to his family as the "best," and as "the fat of the land." See Gen. xlv. 18; xlvii. 11.

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The land of Goshen lay along the Pelusaic, or most easterly branch of the Nile, towards Palestine and Arabia; for it is plain that the Hebrews did not cross that river in their exode from Egypt, as they otherwise must have done. Thus situated, it must have included part of the district of Heliopolis, of which the "On" of the Scriptures is supposed to have been the capital, and which lay on the eastern border of the Delta. Eastward of the river, the land of Goshen appears to have stretched into the desert, where the nomade shepherds might find sustenance for their flocks. In some places it may have extended in this direction to the Gulf of Suez. Thus defined, the land of Goshen included a quantity of fertile land, answering to Joseph's description of it.

In the territory of the tribe of Judah, there was another Goshen, and it was probably so called from being, like the Goshen of Egypt, a district chiefly appropriated to pasture.

THE CLIMATE OF EGYPT.

It will be seen, from the foregoing pages, that Egypt possessed in an eminent degree the three elements of fertilitywater, soil and warmth. Without the latter blessing, the two former would have been of little avail. The climate of Egypt, during the greater part of the year, is indeed most salubrious. The khamseen, or hot south wind, however, which blows in April and May, is oppressive and unhealthy. The exhalations from the soil, also, after the inundation, render the latter part of the autumn less healthy than the summer and winter, and cause opthalmia, dysentery, and other diseases. The summer heat is seldom very oppressive, being accompanied by a refreshing northerly breeze, and the air being extremely dry. But this dryness causes an excessive quantity of dust, which is peculiarly annoying. The thermometer in Lower Egypt, in the depth of winter, is from 50° to 60° in the afternoon, and in the shade: in the hottest season, it is from 90° to 100°, and about ten degrees higher in the southern parts of Upper Egypt. The climate of this part of Egypt, though hotter, is much more healthy than that of the lower country. This is proved by the fact that the plague seldom ascends far above Cairo, and that ophthalmia is more common in Lower than in Upper Egypt. The winds in Egypt are in some degree periodical, and governed by the seasons. Thunder occurs in the Delta, accompanied with violent showers, and sometimes with hail. In Lower Egypt, dew is very abundant.

Even the sands of the desert, says Clarke, partake largely of the dew of heaven, and in a certain degree of the fatness of the earth.

THE PRODUCTIONS OF EGYPT.

Under this section of the "Physical History of Egypt," it will be sufficient to treat only of some of the principal plants indigenous to Egypt, and of the abundance of corn it produced.

Linum.-This plant is an annual, and has been cultivated from time immemorial for its textile fibres, which are spun into thread and woven into cloth. It has a green stem, from a foot and a half to two feet high, and it puts forth a blue flower, which is succeeded by a capsule, containing ten flat oblong seeds of a brown colour, from whence an oil is procured, which is used both in manufactures and painting. We learn from Scripture that Egypt was anciently celebrated for the production of and manufacture of linen from this plant. It was one of the plants which the plague of hail destroyed. See Exod. ix. 31. The fine linen which was composed of flax is also spoken of in several passages. Joseph was arrayed in "vestures of fine linen" when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream, Gen. xli. 42; and Solomon makes mention of it in the book of Proverbs, ch. viii. 16. The prophet Isaiah also speaks of those that worked in "fine flax" of Egypt, ch. xix. 9; and Ezekiel, enumerating the luxuries of Tyrus, says, "Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreådest forth to be thy sail," ch. xxvii. 7. Το the same effect ancient authors write. Herodotus says, that, wrought into inner garments, it constituted the principal dress of the inhabitants, and the priests never put on any other kind of clothing. The mummy chests, also, which occur in the ancient tombs of Egypt in large quantities, and of many different qualities and patterns, appear upon examination, to be made with flax. In the ancient tombs, moreover, which are found in the neighbourhood of all the great cities of Egypt, the culture and manufacture of flax is a very common subject of the paintings with which their sides are covered; and it is clear that the Jews derived their fine stuffs from Egypt, and that from the variety of terms employed, fabrics of different qualities, and all highly appreciated by foreign nations, were produced by the Egyptian loom. The manufacture of flax, indeed, is still carried on in that country, the articles of which are represented as being of the most beautiful texture, and so

finely spun that the threads are with difficulty observed. There appear to have been two kinds of flax, the Abestinum and the Byssus. Pliny holds the former in the highest estimation, and notices a remarkable property peculiar to itself, that of being incombustible; but this partakes of the fabulous, an error that too frequently mars the pages of ancient writers. This author says of the Byssus, that the dress and the ornaments were made of it, and this may have been the material of which "the fine linen with broidered work" was composed, as mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel.

Papyrus.-This was the Egyptian reed, or the Cyperus Papyrus of Linnæus. It is described by two names in Scripture, which our translators render "rush" and "bulrush." It is distinguished by its cluster of elegant little spikes, which consists of a single row of scales ranged on each side in a straight line. These clusters hang in a nodding position, a circumstance alluded to by the prophet Isaiah, ch. lviii. 5. The root of the Cyperus is about the thickness of a man's wrist, and more than fifteen feet in length, and it is so hard that it is used for making utensils. Its stem is about four cubits in length, and being an esculent plant, was eaten in ancient days either raw, roasted, or boiled. It served also as a material for boats, sails, mats, clothes, beds, and books: our word "paper" is, indeed, derived from the Greek name of this plant: the delicate rind or bark of which was anciently used for the purpose of writing upon, an invention ascribed by Varro to Alexander the Great when he built Alexandria. There are two allusions in Scripture to the papyrus being used as a material for boats: the one records the fact that the infant Moses was saved in a vessel of this description, Exod. ii.; and the other speaks of ambassadors being sent from beyond the rivers of Ethopia " in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters," Isa. xviii. 2. The manner of constructing these vessels was simply by making the papyrus into bundles, and tying them together in such a manner as to give them the necessary shape and solidity. That vessels were made of this material in Egypt, is proved by the testimony of profane writers also: Pliny notices "ships made of papyrus, and the equipments of the Nile."

Reeds. This plant, of which there are many varieties, appears to have grown in immense quantities on the banks of the Nile. Hence it is, in connection with the well-known fragility of reeds in general, that they were adopted by the Assyrian general to symbolize the Egyptian nation. "Now,

behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him," 2 Kings xviii. 21. See also, Ezek. xxix. 6, 7.

The Cucumber.-This well-known fruit is mentioned in Scripture, Numbers xi. 5, as a portion of the diet which the Israelites enjoyed so freely in Egypt, and over the loss of which they mourned as they passed through the wilderness. That country, indeed, as well as Arabia, produces many varieties of the cucumber, some of which are softer and more easily digested than those with which we are acquainted; a circumstance attributable to the mellowing effects of the rays of the sun in those climates, which never can be compensated for by artificial heat. Hasselquist thinks that the cucumber referred to by the murmuring Hebrews was the cucumis chate, or 66 queen of cucumbers," of which he gives the following description:" It grows in the fertile earth round Cairo, after the inundation of the Nile, and not in any other place in Egypt, nor in any other soil. It ripens like water-melons; its flesh is almost of the same substance, but is not near so cool. The grandees eat it as the most pleasant food they find, and that from which they have least to apprehend. It is the most excellent of this tribe of any yet known."

The Melon.-The cucurbita citrullus, or water melon, abounded in Egypt and the Levant in the days of the ancients, as it does at the present day. The fruit is about the size of the common pumpkin, the pulp of which is of a blooming appearance, and serves both for meat and drink. Dr. Shaw says, that it is, doubtless, providentially calculated for the southern countries, as it affords a cool, refreshing juice, assuages thirst, mitigates fevers and disorders, and compensates thereby, in no small degree, for the excessive heats. An elegant writer also says of it: "A traveller in the east, who recollects the intense gratitude which the gift of a slice of melon inspired, while journeying over the hot and dry plains; or one who remembers the consciousness of wealth and security which he derived from the possession of a melon while prepared for a day's journey over the same plains-he will readily comprehend the regret with which the Hebrews in the Arabian desert looked back upon the melons of Egypt." The water melon is cultivated on the banks of the Nile, in the rich clayey earth which subsides during the inundation. This serves the Egyptians for meat, drink, and physic. It is eaten in abundance during the season, even by the richer