RUBBISH HEAPS. 615 



elirinks into msignificance wlien compared with masses of similar 

 origin in the neighborhood of older cities. The castaway pottery 

 of ancient towns in Magna Gra3cia composes strata of such extent 

 and thickness that they have been dignified by geologists with 

 the appellation of the ceramic formation. The Nile, as it slowly 

 changes its bed, exposes in its banks masses of the same material, 

 so vast that the population of the world during the whole histori- 

 cal period would seem to have chosen this valley as a general de- 

 posit for its broken vessels. 



The fertility impai-ted to the banks of the Mle by the water 

 and the sHme of the inundations, is such that manures are little 

 employed. Hence much domestic waste, which would elsewhere 

 be employed to enrich the soil, is thrown out into vacant places 

 near the town. Hill s of rubbish are thus piled up which astonish 

 the traveller almost as much as the solid pyramids themselves. 

 The heaps of ashes and other household refuse collected on the 

 borders and within the limits of Cairo were so large, that the re- 

 moval of them by Ibrahim Pacha has been looked upon as one of 

 the great works of the age. 



These heaps formed almost a complete rampart around the city, 

 and impeded both the circulation of the air and the communica- 

 tion between Cairo and its suburbs. At two points these accumu- 

 lations are said to have risen to the incredible height of between 

 six and seven hundred feet ; and these two heaps covered two 

 hundred and fifty acres.* During the occupation of Cairo by the 

 French, the invaders constructed redoubts on these hillocks which 

 commanded the city. They were removed by Mehemet Ali, and 

 the material was employed in raising the level of low grounds in 

 the environ8.t 



In European and American cities, street sweepings and other 

 town refuse are used as manure and spread over the neighbor- 

 ing fields, the surface of which is perceptibly raised by them, by 

 vegetable deposit, and by other effects of human industry, and in 

 spite of all efforts to remove the waste, the level of the ground 

 on which large towns stand is constantly elevated. The present 

 streets of Rome are twenty feet, and in many places much more, 

 above those of the ancient city. The Appian "Way between Rome 



* Clot Bet, £gypte, i., p. 277. 



f Egypt manufactures annually about 1,200,000 pounds of nitre, by lixivi- 

 ating the ancient and modem rubbish-heaps around the towns. 



