t 4-1/2 inches were reached.
The whole consisted of Nile deposits, alternate layers of loam and sand
of the same composition throughout. From the greatest depth a fragment
of pottery was obtained. Ninety-five of these borings were made in
various places, but on no occasion was solid rock reached. The organic
remains were all recent; not a trace of an extinct fossil occurred, but
an abundance of the residues of burnt bricks and pottery. In their
examination from Essouan to Cairo, the French estimated the mud deposit
to be five inches for each century. From an examination of the results
at Heliopolis, Mr. Horner makes it 3.18 inches. The Colossus of Rameses
II. is surrounded by a sediment nine feet four inches deep, fairly
estimated. Its date of erection was about 3215 years ago, which gives
3-1/2 inches per century. But beneath it similar layers continue to the
depth of 30 feet, which, at the same rate, would give 13,500 years, to
A.D. 1854, at which time the examination was made. Every precaution
seems to have been taken to obtain accurate results.

[Sidenote: Its geography and topography.]

The extent of surface affected by the inundations of the Nile is, in a
geographical point of view, altogether insignificant; yet, such as it
was, it constituted Egypt. Commencing at the Cataract of Essouan, at
the sacred island of Philae, on which to this day here and there the
solitary palm-tree looks down, it reached to the Mediterranean Sea, from
24 deg. 3' N. to 31 deg. 37' N. The river runs in a valley, bounded on
one side by the eastern and on the other by the Libyan chain of mountains,
and of which the average breadth is about seven miles, the arable land,
however, not averaging more than five and a half. At the widest place it
is ten and three-quarters, at the narrowest two. The entire surface of
irrigated and fertile land in the Delta is 4500 square miles; the arable
land of Egypt, 2255 square miles; and in the Fyoom, 340 square miles, an
insignificant surface, yet it supported seven millions of people.

Here agriculture was so precise that it might almost be pronounced a
mathematical art. The disturbances arising from atmospheric conditions
were eliminated, and the variations, as connected with the supply of
river-water, ascertained in advance. The priests proclaimed how the
flood stood on the Nilometer, and the husbandman made corresponding
preparations for a scanty or an abundant harvest.

In such a state of things, i