THE COMMERCE OF THE NILE. 505 



ally " The Country," or the cultivated ground, in con- 

 tradistinction to the uncultivated waste, or desert country. 



The port for the commerce of the Nile is, as we 

 know, at Alexandria, which lies some thirty miles to 

 the westward of the Rosetta mouth; while Damietta 

 is some ninety miles still further to the eastward. At 

 both these places are towns of considerable size, espe- 

 cially at Damietta; but as ports for ocean going ships 

 they have been completely eclipsed by Alexandria, 

 and are only resorted to by small vessels and fishing 

 boats. Goods landed at Alexandria for Cairo, or Upper 

 Egypt, can be conveyed either by rail, or by the 

 Mahmudiyeh Canal, a fine work begun by Mohammed 

 Ali in 1819, having an average width of about 100 

 feet. This canal joins the Nile at Atfeh, on the Rosetta 

 branch, and has a length of about 50 miles. Part of 

 its course is identical with the ancient Canopic channel, 

 \vhich once formed one of the seven branches by which 

 the Nile reached the sea. * 



The river Nile for the last 1000 miles of its course 

 below the second Cataract is so well known, that it 

 would be needless to occupy space in these pages by 

 any descriptive account. We shall therefore confine 

 ourselves to a short general description of the famous 

 river as a whole. Viewed as a great river system, 

 it is full of interest and instruction. For ages, as 

 everybody is aware, the sources of the Nile remained 

 a mystery, though numerous attempts were made to 

 solve it, all of which proved unsuccessful. It was not 

 till 1858 that the first of the great lakes, the Victoria 

 Nyanza, was discovered by Captain Speke and sub- 

 sequently in 1864 the Albert Nyanza by Sir Samuel 



* See Murray's Handbook for Egypt, 1891, Part i., p. 137- 



