152 THE VALLEY OF THE NILE. 



measures about eighty miles along the sea-coast, which forms the base 

 of a triangular district known as the Delta (A) of the Nile. The two 

 other angles are marked by the cities of Pelusium and Alexandria. 

 This long strip of fertility is narrowly shut in between deserts of 

 almost incredible sterility. 



A peculiarity worthy of attention, because it is the unique cause 

 of the fertility of Egypt, is, that the valley of the Nile, instead of 

 sloping down on either side to the river-bank, assumes a gently con- 

 vex form. It is owing to this slight convexity that, at the epoch of 

 the inundation beginning in June and ending in October the Nile 

 waters overflow to the right and to the left, rest upon the soil, and 

 there deposit their precious mud. How different the aspects of the 

 country at different seasons of the year ! First, the bright sparkling 

 sheets of far-spreading and fertilising water ; then the emerald green 

 of the growing crops ; lastly, the ripe warm yellow hues of the full 

 harvest. Well might Amrou, the Arab conqueror of Egypt, remark 

 to the Caliph Omar, that, " according to the vicissitudes of the 

 seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, a 

 verdant emerald, and the deep gold of an abundant harvest." 



The soil of Egypt is, then, simply an alluvium mixed with the 

 sand which the winds bring from the Desert. Its aspect is that of a 

 rich, well-cultivated land, but bears the impress of a wearisome mono- 

 tony. You see there neither the dark dense forest, the rolling prairie, 

 nor the undulating woodland ; from the shore of the Mediterranean to 

 the tropics you meet everywhere with the same cultivation ; the same 

 mud-built villages, with their dirty and winding streets ; and ever 

 the same clumps of palms, which would end by becoming tedious if it 

 were not that their elegance of form invests them with an eternal 

 beauty if a glorious radiance did not gild with "refined gold" 

 everything it touches if, finally, an after-glow of wondrous loveli- 

 ness, of which the eye and soul can never weary, which whenever 

 seen suggests some new and subtle emotions, did not terminate 

 every day by a crepuscular pomp of indescribable magnificence. 



The Palm-tree is, in Egypt, as in all the oases, the principal 



