26 Notices of Egypt. 
finds nothing ready to his hand: every thing must be constructed. 
As we passed over the ground, we found them in one place making 
carts, in another wheel-barrows, while the whole process of grinding 
grain and making bread, must be prepared for and carried on, on the 
ground itself.. The piles must be brought from other countries, and 
the stones of which five millions of cubic metres will be needed, are 
to be transported from the quarries back of Cairo, a distance of about 
twenty five miles; they have been thinking of constructing a rail 
road for the latter purpose, but this has not yet been decided upon. 
Mon. Lenon the Engineer, deserves great credit not only for what 
he has-already done, but for several circumstances in which he has 
consulted the comfort of the workinen, to a degree very unusual in 
this country. When the canal ftom Alexandria to the Nile was dug, 
some years since, a large part of the laborers perished from famine 
and disease. No pay has ever been given for such work, till the 
present occasion. Mon. Lenon, has prevailed on the Pasha, to al- 
low 36 paras (43 cents) per day, to each full grown laborer, and we 
found them erecting houses for sleeping and also hospitals for the 
sick. Their provision costs them 6 paras daily, which is deducted 
from their pay: a laborer on a farm throughout most of the German 
empire, gets but 4 or 5 cents, exclusive of his food, so that in so 
cheap a country as Egypt, this may be considered a handsome al- 
lowance. ‘hey work from sun rise to sun set, with an hour at noon 
for rest, and at the end of 2 months are exchanged for a new set of 
workmen. The ground was broken about 3 months since, 6000 men 
are employed on the Rosetta side, and 4000 on the other branch: 
Mon. Lenon says that if he can get men enough, the work will be 
completed in 3 years, but, as matters go, he will probably not be 
able to finish it in less than 6'or 7: at present, the only utensils in 
use are a rude hoe for loosening the earth, and a basket, with which it 
is conveyed on the head and thrown down the bank. 
It is a pity, that there should be a dark spot on so fair a project, 
but it should be added, that the workmen are a most distressing set 
of objects to contemplate. When a requisition is made, the head 
man in each village selects the number demanded. Thasack tied 
by the neck, in companies of a dozen or more, toa pole, and are 
thus driven to the ground. We found them in groups of from 10 
to 40, each with one or more drivers, and according to the disposi- 
tion of those men, their pace was a slow walk or a trot: the drivers 
carry a whip and make abundant use of it. 
