CAIRO. 259. 
and palaces. All the little features of the banks of the stream, 
between Aftéh and Cairo, which are familiar to us by Scripture 
History, and here realized for the first time, are forgotten, when 
Cairo and the Pyramids open to the view; for these are the first 
grand objects which force themselves upon the notice of the most 
heedless traveller. To me, however, the banded cliffs of mud 
along the banks were very suggestive, for they indicate the suc- 
cessive deposits of fertile soil, and as many epochs of rejoicing 
throughout the narrow belt of habitable land in Egypt, from the 
earliest ages, and through every change, however violent, which this 
miserable country has undergone. At the time of our visit (begin- 
ning of December), the Nile had just resumed its proper channel ; 
and the banks, on either side, were, in some places, alive with the 
poor Fellahs, hurrying the seed into the mud. At Cairo, the belt 
of productive soil (which is everywhere confined to the overflowed 
portion) does not exceed five miles broad on the right bank, and 
not one upon the Cairo side; but the best use is made of it. 
Considering the vast size and body of water in the Nile, and the 
prodigious length of that river, its effects are trifling, less, perhaps, 
than from any river of the same dimensions. This is owing to the 
nature of the Desert through which it flows, and to the immense 
distance from which every particle of the precious mud is trans- 
ported :—also, to the fact, that it is only the lesser branch, the 
Blue Nile (that of Abyssinia, and explored by Bruce), which con- 
tributes at a// to the fertility of Egypt. On the other hand, if 
we reflect upon what the country would be without the Nile, its 
importance and effects can hardly be sufficiently estimated ; for 
indefatigable as the river has been, it has not deposited more 
than eight feet of soil, since the time of the Ptolomies. 
The Pyramids are on the opposite side of the Nile from Cairo ; 
and the distance being about twelve miles, by road, (further or 
nearer, according to the state of the inundated intervening country,) 
we made arrangements over-night for starting early the following 
morning. At six we took donkeys, provisions, and two Dragomen, 
and passed through the narrow alleys and under the latticed 
windows of Cairo, to a place opposite Ghizeh. On our route we 
