312 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



persons, and which will not fail to act as a check on the exercise of British 

 power. 



Undoubtedly the new masters possess a certain means by which they can make 

 themselves, if not loved, at least respected by the people. For they have it in their 

 power to restore the land to its cultivators, to rescue them from the usurers who 

 absorb their substance, to assure them an impartial justice, and to leave " Egypt 

 more and more to the Egyptians." But what Government ever possessed this virtue 

 of gradually effacing itself ? Will that of Great Britain set the example ? If the 

 solemn and reiterated affirmations of the heads of the English Government are to be 

 believed, their only ambition is to re-establish order in the finances and government 

 of Egypt, and then, this pious work accomplished, to withdraw, leaving their 

 successors to follow the good example they have set. 



Geographical Exploration. 



Connected as it is with the circle of attraction of European politics, Egypt is 

 naturally one of the best-explored countries of the African continent. At the time 

 of the French expedition towards the end of last century, the numerous scientific 

 men who accompanied Bonaparte, Desaix, and Kleber, thoroughly studied the land 

 from the various standpoints of its mineralogy, geology, the history of the soil, 

 hydrography, annals, architecture, manners and customs, and the social economy of 

 the country, and their joint labours still constitute the most considerable scientific 

 monument which exists regarding the lower Nile valley. The general map, which 

 they drew up to the scale of tô""ôVô"ô'' ^^^ ^^^^ remained in many respects the most 

 complete that we possess, notably for Upper Egypt, or Said. The smaller map that 

 Linant de Bellefonds, Director of Public Works in Egypt, caused to be engraved, is 

 another valuable document. 



But, beyond the salient features of the country, defined by the rocky backbone 

 which bounds the verdant plains, the outlines of the land change yearly, and any 

 local maps, drawn up with the greatest care during the preceding generation, would 

 have to be nearly entirely recast. On one hand the slopes of the Nile have been 

 eaten away by the water ; on the other, alluvial deposits have been developed, which 

 the fellahin have already embanked and commenced to cultivate. Choked up 

 canals have been replaced by other irrigating channels, whilst routes and villages 

 have changed both locality and name. The special maps, made for the survey of 

 the great domains, constantly assign them different outlines. 



On the other hand, the " Arabian " and " Libyan" deserts are still unknown, 

 except along the track of a few explorers, on one side between the Nile and the 

 ports of the Red Sea, and on the other in the direction of the oases. It is time 

 that the country in which Eratosthenes, more than two thousand years ago, first 

 measured an arc of the meridian, should at last possess a network of geodetic 

 measurements with which all the local maps might be connected. 



But most Egyptian explorers have studied the ancient history of the people 

 rather than their present life and the special geography of the country. When 



