IpS TRAVELS IN UPTER 



granted, only presenting a single and particular 

 fact, cannot be taken into the general account. 

 For some years the inhabitants have complained of 

 the scantiness of their crops, although the ground 

 had produced twenty fold during these very years 

 whicli they had considered as times of dearth. 



A fertility like this, w.hich had no need of the 

 aid of exaggeration to appear astonishing, will still 

 admit of increase. Ignorant and lazy, the Egyp- 

 tian husbandmen knew not how to avail them- 

 selves, to the utmost, of the most fruitful of all soils ; 

 and the means of irrigation which vegetation de- 

 mands in so warm a climate were neglected, or, in 

 a great degree, lost. 



In another view, when it Is considered that vege- 

 tation has no where more force and activity than 

 in the soil of Upper Egypt ; if it is remembered 

 that no species of plant long occupies the earth, 

 and that many crops are seen in succession, and 

 coming to perfection in one and the same year, the 

 inexhaustible mine of abundance which this an- 

 cient land encloses in its womb, must be a source 

 of wonder and astonishment. 



And this uncommon fertility is still more bril- 

 liant io the south than to the north of Egypt. 



Thebais, 



