this was inconvenient enough; but there was no help for it. The first intention was that the baggage should be sent on by camels, of which there were some at hand. But, alas! the Pasha had pressed every one into his service. However, by a little dexterity and management, camels sufficient for our purpose were secured, after a wild scene of Arab violence and uproar, in which there is always more sound than danger. A small latteen-sailed boat was obtained after we had walked on for some distance, just sufficient to convey us and our attendants.

We had a full view of Mehemet Ali as he sat at dinner, and while he was enjoying his chibouk, attended by his retinue; and afterwards, when he came from the farm-house, and mounted his white mule, for the purpose of taking possession of our boat, we were enabled to form a tolerably accurate notion of his person. He is a most remarkable man, and realized all we had heard about him. He is now past seventy, with a hale, firm, and determined countenance, and venerable white beard. Seeing two Europeans near him, as he hastily passed by, he glanced a very peculiar, but not unfriendly glance upon us; acknowledged slightly our bows, made some passing observations to his nearest attendants, with an evident reference to us, and in another minute was mounted on his mule. His highness's pipe-bearer and coffeebearer, his silver washhand bason and towel-bearer, secretary and interpreter, all, were in immediate attendance upon him. The scene was very interesting and very oriental. Here was perhaps almost the wonder of the age-the soldier of fortune, who had risen from the humblest rank in the Turkish armynow the powerful despot of Egypt, with almost patriarchal simplicity, taking his homely mid-day meal at a small farmhouse, and departing as ancient despots used, surrounded by slaves, camels, dromedaries, &c. &c.

I shall not easily lose the impression made on my mind by this glance at Mehemet Ali. Had he reached Alexandria before our departure, we should have been presented to him. And even on this occasion, it might have been practicable;

but we thought, willing as he is to receive Europeans, it might be then deemed intrusive; so we suffered the opportunity to pass.

It was nearly ten o'clock in the evening, and very dark, with the exception of the light afforded by numberless stars, when we came to shore, within about two miles of Atfeh, where the canal joins the Nile. On landing, we found a supply of camels to take our baggage, and saddled donkeys for riding. It was a strange and primitive scene. Camels. were gurgling and grunting in a loud strain-donkeys were keeping up a perpetual braying—while Arab tongues, some hoarse and shouting-some shrill and screaming-others sputtering their exclamations of anger and eagerness, made up a Babel of strange sounds. At length, all the baggage was loaded-donkeys were mounted by our whole party, and a goodly number of lanterns lighted; and we set out, over a rough, hilly, and uneven road, along which we were obliged to trust entirely to our sure-footed animals. We seemed to be a tediously long time in getting over the two miles; but at last arrived safely at Atfeh, where we stayed for the night, at a miserable kind of half-European hotel, swarming with animalculæ, under promise of being furnished at an early hour in the morning, with a suitable Nile-boat and crew, to ake us up to Cairo. We partook of a coarse, homely supper -such as an Englishman would, under ordinary circumstances, make a dead pause at, and soon fell asleep after the fatigues of an exhausting day. Mercy and goodness had followed us thus far; and my heart was lifted up in praise and thanksgiving.

Many an interesting thought and feeling passed through my mind, when, in the light of the early morning, I first beheld the waters of the ancient Nile sparkling before me. I thought of the miraculous transaction of which this very river was, doubtless, the scene, as recorded in Exodus vii. 15 -21: "Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned

to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt say unto him, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; and, behold, hitherto thou wouldst not hear. Thus saith the Lord, in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loath to drink of the water of the river.

And Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank; and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt."

The Nile is one of the most interesting objects of natural history, in addition to those associations of idea which Scripture affords in reference to it. It is the noblest river of the old world. For the immense distance of one thousand three hundred and fifty nautical miles (that is, from Ilak in Nubia, where the Nile is joined by the river Takazze), it rolls on to its mouths in the Mediterranean, without receiving one tributary stream; "an unexampled instance," as Humboldt has remarked, " in the hydrographic history of the globe." It is to this noble river that Egypt owes its fertility, and probably its existence.

The Nile is well known to be remarkable for an annual overflow of its waters to a vast extent; and affords one of the most striking instances of providential provision for furthering the process of vegetation. Various theories of this phenomenon have been proposed by numerous writers, from Homer and Herodotus downwards; and various accounts also have been given of the process of inundation. The following observations of Bruce are interesting and valuable. He remarks:-" The air is so much rarefied by the sun, during

the time he remains almost stationary over the tropic of Cap ricorn, that the winds, loaded with vapors, rush in upon the land from the Atlantic ocean on the west, the Indian ocean on the east, and the cold southern ocean beyond the Cape. Thus, a great quantity of vapor is gathered, as it were, into a focus; and as the same causes continue to operate during the progress of the sun northward, a vast train of clouds proceeds from south to north, which are sometimes extended much further than at other times. In April, all the rivers in the south of Abyssinia begin to swell; in the beginning of June they are all full, and continue so while the sun remains stationary in the tropic of Cancer. This excessive rain, which would sweep off the whole soil of Egypt into the sea, were it to continue without intermission, begins to abate as the sun turns southward; and on his arrival at the zenith of each place, on his passage towards that quarter, they cease entirely. Immediately after the sun has passed the line, he begins the rainy season to the southward. The rise of the Nile at Cairo does not commence till June; the green color, produced either by the influx of corrupt or stagnant waters, or by the action of the hot south winds on the sluggish stream, appearing about the twelfth of that month. The red appearance, occasioned by the arrival of the Abyssinian waters, takes place early in July, from which the rise of the river may perfectly be dated, as it then begins to increase rapidly. By the middle of August it reaches half its greatest height, and it attains its maximum towards the end of September. From the twentyfourth of that month, the waters are supposed to decline, but maintain nearly the same level till the middle of October. By the tenth of November, they have sunk about half, and from that period continue to subside very slowly till they reach their minimum in April. The regularity with which these phenomena occur, will appear the more remarkable, when taken in connection with all the circumstances which distinguish this wonderful stream."

The swell of the river varies in different parts of the channel. In Upper Egypt, it is from thirty to thirty-five feet. At

Cairo, it is about twenty-five feet; whilst in the northern part of the Delta, it does not exceed four feet; which is owing to the artificial channels and the breadth of the inundation; yet the four feet of increase is as necessary to the fertility of the Delta, as the twenty-three or thirty feet elsewhere. Very little rain ever falls in Egypt-and in Upper Egypt is scarce ly known. In Lower Egypt, a very slight and almost momentary shower is all that is ever experienced, even during the cool part of the year. Therefore the irrigation which the land receives through the direct overflow of the Nile, and by means of the canals which convey its waters where the inundation does not directly extend, is quite essential to that fertility for which Egypt has at all times been proverbial. The inhabitants of Egypt have, with great labor, cut a vast number of canals and trenches, through the whole extent of the land. These canals are not opened until the river has attained a certain height, nor yet all at the same time, as the distribution of the water would then be unequal. The sluices are closed when the waters begin to subside, and are gradually opened again in the autumn, allowing the waters to pass on to contribute to the irrigation of the Delta.

We have, in all the details of the annual inundation of this river, a striking exemplification of the providence of God. The fertility of the country depends upon the waters reaching a certain medium; for, if they do not rise to a certain minimum, famine is the result; and if they exceed a certain maximum, consequences scarcely less calamitous resultwhole villages are then liable to be swept away, with all the corn, cattle, and inhabitants. The waters, however, usually reach this medium, which is higher or lower in different parts of the country, according as those parts are visited with less. or more copious supplies of rain; the rise is so regular, that it may be calculated upon within a very few days of its taking place; and yet the actual cause of it exists at least two thousand miles from some of the parts where it is experienced. It is no wonder that the Egyptians, looking no further than to