1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 165 



other streams in the character and in the beneficent effect of 

 its annual flood. It is remarkable in the fact that its valley 

 was the seat of a civilization thousands of years before even 

 our conjecture, and that from it proceeded the knowledge 

 that established Greece, and also in the physical wonder 

 that for fifteen hundred miles it flows through a desert with- 

 out receiving a tributary, wasted by the unclouded sun, the 

 thirsty soil and the drafts upon it, for irrigation to supply 

 the needs of several millions of people. This continuous 

 waste has the effect peculiar to this river, that it grows larger 

 as it is ascended, until, a thousand miles to the south, its 

 mighty torrent pours through the sculptured walls of its 

 rocky sides, in volume and power far greater than that which 

 passes Cairo, and divides into the two branches that make 

 the Delta and join the Mediterranean. The river at Cairo is 

 alive with craft ; all the business of upper and middle Egypt 

 comes down in large boats with the vast triangular sails 

 called lateen, so much used in the Levant. There are small 

 mail and government dispatch steamers, and large steam- 

 boats that ply with passengers as far as the first cataract, 

 which is about six hundred miles. 



The travelers' observation of the Nile valley, except what 

 he gets from his railway journey from Cairo to Alexandria, 

 or across the land of Goshen to the Suez Canal, must be from 

 the journey up the Nile ; and the only way to properly make 

 this voyage is to take a Nile boat and spend the winter on 

 the river, slowly sailing up with the north winds when they 

 favor, and sailing with the south winds and drifting back 

 again with the current, in the spring. To do this I chartered 

 the boat "India," one hundred and ten feet long, drawing 

 thirty-four inches ; two masts, one at stern and one at bow, 

 carrying large sails. The cabin occupied about two-thirds 

 of the boat, and the top of it made an upper deck with awn- 

 ings and seats. The crew consisted of a captain, steersman 

 and fourteen men, a cook and assistant, two cabin servants, 

 and the dragoman, who is the glory of the East, the guide, 

 philosopher and friend, interpreter, caterer and never-failing 

 comforter of the traveler. Our dragoman was a good 

 Mussulman, bearing the honored name of Hassan Mahomet; 

 an Arab of ancient lineage and gay apparel. His dress was 



