AND LOWER EGYPT. 1 97 



Thebais, which borders on the torrid zone*, would 

 seem, from the heat of the sun by which it is 

 warmed, from the masses of rocks which surround 

 it, and which reflect and concentrate the heat, and 

 from the elevation of its land, rendered thereby 

 more difficult to inundate, to be destitute of ver- 

 dure, and of the richness of harvests; it is, never- 

 theless, infinitely more fruitful than the moist soil of 

 the Delta. Its produce of every kind is more sur- 

 prising. Fruit-trees overshadow it in greater num- 

 bers, and form, in a manner, forests of moderate 

 thickness, which produce perpetual coolness, and 

 under the shade of which you may either take re- 

 pose, or travel. 



Besides the vegetative force of a highly-favoured 

 soil, the manner in which the Egyptians sow the 

 corn, is another cause of its great multiplication. 

 They perceive that the method of sowing thickly, 

 perhaps necessary in a cold and compact ground, 

 would be hurtful in a soil warm and teeming with 

 vegetation. The act of sowing is also carefully ma- 

 naged in the fields of Egypt. The sower closely 

 follows the plough, and scatters, in the small fur- 

 row which it leaves behind, a portion of grain, 

 barely necessary, which the plough covers in tracing 

 another furrow. In this manner not a single grajp 



* The tropic of Cancer passes a little above the cataracts, or 

 at the extremity of Egypt. 



03 i3 



