118 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
brilliancy of the colours with which it is streaked, 
is commonly found in a basis of calcareous stone. 
The external soil, or vegetable mould of Egypt, 
exhibits no similarity to the soil in any of the con- 
tiguous countries. Herodotus remarked, that the 
soil of Egypt was fat, black, and crumbling, though 
the earth of Libya was red and sandy, and the 
mould of Syria a strong clay intermixed with stones. 
Such is the physical structure of Egypt, where the 
Nile, as if fatigued with the boundless solitude of 
the Nubian deserts, seems to have selected a se- 
questered valley, more savage than the rest, to adorn 
it with the richest gifts of nature. The rich black 
clay of Abyssinia being transported thither by the 
river, a fertile island arose in the midst of deserts, 
and the sediment accumulating in a narrow gulf 
of the Mediterranean, at last created an impene- 
trable morass, covered with canes and reeds. This 
is the Egyptian Delta, concerning the origin of 
which so many disputes have been agitated, and 
which, as it involves a difficult geological problem, 
will probably continue a subject of discussion for 
many centuries. 
Besides the obvious division of Egypt into the 
Upper and Lower Districts, there is another of 
great antiquity, to which there are numerous re- 
ferences in ancient authors ; that of the Delta, 
Heptanomis, and Thebaid. According to this 
division, the Delta occupied the coast of the Me- 
