282 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



diciilar, another extending towai'ds Peliisium the hypotenuse, while 

 the coast line from Alexandria to Port Said will represent the base. 



South of Heliopolis Egypt's arable soil is confined to the Nile 

 valley. Through this valley sluggishly flows the old Nile, of whose 

 source and annual rise Herodotus tells so many marvellous stoiies. 

 On each side of the river is a level strip of land, reaching back to 

 the flanks of the mountain ranges. The part of this area contiguous 

 to the river only is fertile, while over the remote parts the sands of 

 the Desert maintain the masteiy, and a perpetual struggle is carried 

 on by the river on the one hand and the sand on the other. 



The valley gradually contracts southward, until the ai'able land 

 becomes a mere strip which the Fellahin cultivate in the most Primi- 

 tive method, and from which they deiive the most scanty pittance. 

 These green strips and the few palms, under whose shade the toiling 

 Egyptians find shelter from the sun, are merely sufiicient to relieve 

 the monotony of barren sand and sun-bleached hills which meet the 

 eye everywhei-e else. Only a little more than the tenth of the whole 

 area of Egypt is capable of cultivation, so that only ten or eleven 

 thousand square miles are the producing area. It is plain, therefore, 

 the population must always be very limited. 



The most reliable statement gives Egypt now a population of about 

 five million. In a country whose soil is so fertile, and which can 

 produce two crops of wheat a year, a much denser population can be 

 sustained. In ancient times the agricultural appliances seem to have 

 been of the same kind as those now tised, and as the Nile is Egypt's 

 perpetual fertilizer, the country was capable of supporting as dense a 

 population then as now. Perhaps at no time has the population been 

 so great as to test the producing power of the soil, for from the 12th 

 Dynasty onwards, the period of Egypt's greatest achievements in 

 war, in architecture and literature, the foreign wars were a steady 

 drain on the population. 



In that small country were laid the foundations of mathematics, 

 astronomy and literatvire ; and there, too, art achieved some of its 

 mightiest and finest triumphs. On its soil the flag of almost every 

 civilized nation has been unfurled, and the annals of Egypt, on 

 Papyrus Rolls, on the walls of ancient temples and tombs, record 

 victories over now forgotten tribes and over powerful nations. Such 

 a people is worthy of our study, who could erect massive pyramids 

 and temples, that line the banks of the Nile for nearly 1,000 miles. 



