THE CONDITION OF EGYPT. 147 



been brought forward in this and in the preceding section of this 

 chapter ; but I consider them open to question. 



A writer in the " Edinburgh Review " whom I have already cited, 

 after making some remarks on the desiccation of Palestine, as a con- 

 sequence of the destruction of the olives, palms, and other trees, 

 during the Roman war, goes on to say : — " Even as to that country, 

 of which it was said, two thousand four hundred years ago, that the 

 family of Egypt have no rain, the United States Commission of 

 Agriculture, for 1871, reports: — 'In Upper Egypt, the rains which 

 eighty years ago were abundant, have ceased siuce the Arabs cut 

 down the trees along the valley of the Nile towards Lybia and Arabia. 

 A contrary effect has been produced in Lower Egypt, from the 

 planting of the Pacha. In Alexandria and Cairo, where rain was 

 formerly a rarity, it has since that time become more frequent." But 

 this statement appears to be open to question. 



It is stated by Cezanne that Clot Bey has, in his work entitled 

 Aper^u general sur V Egypte (vol. i, p. 22), shown that the plantations 

 in Egypt have not rendered rains more frequent. And he states that 

 at Cairo, the mean number of days on which it rains in the course of 

 the year is twelve, and the rain-fall 34 millimetres. 



On this subject Mr Marsh remarks ; — " The alleged augmentation 

 of rain-fall in Lower Egypt, in consequence of large plantations by 

 Mehemet All, is very frequently appealed to as a proof of this in- 

 flaeace of the forests, and this case has become a regular common- 

 place in all discussions of the question. It is, however, open to the 

 same objection as the alleged instances of the diminution of precipi- 

 tation in consequence of the felling of the forest. 



" This supposed increase in the frequency and quantity of rain in 

 Lower Egypt is, I think, an error, or at least not an established fact 

 I have heard it disputed on the spot by intelligent Franks, whose 

 residence in that country began before the plantations of Mehemet 

 Ali and Ibrahim Pacha, and I have been assured by them that 

 meteorological observations, made at Alexandria about the beginning 

 of this century, show an annual fall of rain as great as is usual at this 

 day. The mere fact that it did not rain during the French occupation 

 is not couclusive. Ha\ing experieucsd a gentle shower of nearly 

 twenty-four hours' duration in Upper Egypt, I inquired of the local 

 governor in relation to the frequency of this phenomenon, and was 

 tol.i by him that not a drop of rain had fallen at that point for more 

 than two years previous. 



" The belief in the increase of rain in Egypt rests almost entirely on 



