the tomb of Ti; drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

Between the Libyan and Arabian ranges it presents a slightly convex
surface, furrowed lengthways by a depression, in the bottom of which
the Nile is gathered and enclosed when the inundation is over. In the
summer, as soon as the river had risen higher than the top of its
banks, the water rushed by the force of gravity towards the lower lands,
hollowing in its course long channels, some of which never completely
dried up, even when the Nile reached its lowest level.[*] Cultivation
was easy in the neighbourhood of these natural reservoirs, but
everywhere else the movements of the river were rather injurious than
advantageous to man. The inundation scarcely ever covered the higher
ground in the valley, which therefore remained unproductive; it flowed
rapidly over the lands of medium elevation, and moved so sluggishly in
the hollows that they became weedy and stagnant pools.[**]

* The whole description of the damage which can be done by
the Nile in places where the inundation is not regulated, is
borrowed from Linant de Bellefonds, _Memoire sur les
principaux travaux d'utilite publique_, p. 3.

** This physical configuration of the country explains the
existence at a very early date of those gigantic serpents
which I have already mentioned.

[Illustration: 089.jpg AN EGYPTIAN SAKIA (WELL) SHOWING METHOD OF
PROCURING WATER FOR IRRIGATION.]

In any year the portion not watered by the river was invaded by the
sand: from the lush vegetation of a hot country, there was but one
step to absolute aridity. At the present day an ingeniously established
system of irrigation allows the agriculturist to direct and distribute
the overflow according to his needs. From Gebel Ain to the sea, the Nile
and its principal branches are bordered by long dykes, which closely
follow the windings of the river and furnish sufficiently stable
embankments. Numerous canals lead off to right and left, directed more
or less obliquely towards the confines of the valley; they are divided
at intervals by fresh dykes, starting at the one side from the river,
and ending on the other either at the Bahr Yusuf or at the rising of
the desert. Some of these dykes protect one district only, and consist
merely of a bank of earth; others command a large extent of territory,
and a breach in them would entail the ruin of an entire province. Thes