the British Government with full powers to organize the evacuation of the country, but which he found it impossible to effect. After many fierce contests with the Arabs, the British vanguard approached Khartum in January, 1885, only to find that it had fallen into the hands of the Mahdi, and that its heroic defender had been killed and his faithful followers massacred. Thereupon the British Government determined to quell the insurrection at any cost, and reinforcements were sent out to open up the SuakinBerber route, the forces under Lord Wolseley being concentrated on the Nile, and remaining on the defensive. Owing, however, to the crisis in Afghanistan, the Egyptian Government withdrew to the North, retaining only a garrison at Suakin, and leaving Nubia in the hands of the Mahdi, who fixed his capital at Omdurman, on the opposite side of the river to Khartum. In 1896, however, the gradual reconquest of the Sudan was decided on, and an Anglo-Egyptian force advanced against the Khalifa, the Mahdi's successor, and captured Dongola. In the following year Berber and Kassala were re-occupied by Egyptian troops, the Nile as far as the Sixth Cataract was con trolled by gunboats, and the road to Suakin was re-opened. In August, 1898, the Anglo-Egyptian army was concentrated at the mouth of the Atbara, and as soon as the Nile had risen sufficiently to allow the gunboats to pass the Sixth Cataract, an advance on Omdurman was made; and on September 2, the Khalifa met with a crushing defeat outside the walls of his capital, losing 11,000 men; and his long reign of terror was brought to an end.

The Sirdar immediately pushed on with a small force to Fashoda, which he reached on September 19, to find it occupied by a French expedition under Major Marchand, the avowed object of which was to unite the French possessions north of the Congo with Obok, on the Red Sea. Great Britain at once demanded the unconditional evacuation of Fashoda, which was effected in November; and in March of 1899 an agreement was signed wherein France renounced her claim to territory in the Nile basin, and received in return the recognition by England of her claim to the suzerainty of Wadai. The Egyptian Sudan is now regarded as extending southwards from the 22° North lat., and has been divided for administrative purposes into six provinces (Khartum, Dongola, Berber, Kassala, Sennar, and Kordofan) and into three administrative districts (Wadj Halfa, Suakin, and Fashoda).

Towns: Upper Nubia contains the towns of KHARTUM, or Khartoum as it is now officially spelt, at the junction of the White and Blue Niles, which is the most important pace in this portion of the Nile, and the seat of government for the whole country, as well as for the adjoining regions of the Sudan. On the opposite side of the Nile is the fortified town of Omdurman, the late capital of the Mahdi and his successor. Sennar, also in Upper Nubia, is on the Blue Nile. Metammeh and Abu Klea, on the Nile below Khartum, are memorable as the scene of victories won by the English over the forces of the Mahdi during their advance to the relief of General Gordon. New Dongola, on the left bank of the Nile, lower down its course, is one of the most thriving of Nubian towns. The only seaports of Nubia are PORT SUDAN and SUAKIN, a small place on the Red Sea, which is garrisoned by Egyptian troops. The caravan-route from this port across the desert, leading to Berber, a small place on the right bank of the Nile, not far from its junction with the Athara, has now been replaced by the railway from Port Sudan (with a branch from Suakin). A railway has recently been built across the desert from Wadi Halfa to Khartum, and is being extended southwards. It will form part of the proposed Cape-Cairo Transcontinental Railway. Another line connects Abu Hamed with Karima. Kodok, as the town of Fashoda, famous for its occupation by Major Marchand, has been renamed, is a river port on the White Nile. El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, was the headquarters of the Mahdi, who advanced thence on Khartum. In the old Equatorial Province the chief stations held by Emin Pasha were Wadelai, on the Nile, 20 miles north of the Albert Nyanza, Dufilé, and Lado.

EGYPT.

EGYPT is the lower portion of the Nile Valley, extending from the Mediterranean southwards to 22° North lat.

The total area-excluding the Sudan, but including the Oases in the Libyan Desert and the Red Sea Coast down to 22° South latitude, together with the Sinai Peninsula

and the Land of Midian in Arabia-is upwards of 400,000 square miles, of which the cultivated and settled area covers only 13,000 square miles, the rest being a desert, affording a most, pasturage in a few favoured localities.

NATURAL FEATURES: Egypt has two great natural features -the Nile and the Desert. Cultivation is limited to the lands that immediately adjoin the former, and over which its inundations reach.

In its course through Egypt, except for the last 120 miles, the Nile flows through a narrow valley, which is strictly limited by high chains of rocks upon either side. These rocks-or rather hills, for they reach in some places 1,000 feet above the valley-divide the cultivable land from the desert, which begins immediately beyond. This desert reaches in one direction to the shores of the Red Sea, and on the other side forms part of the great wilderness of Northern Africa.

At a distance of one hundred and twenty miles above the sea, the Nile divides into two branches, called respectively (from the names of the towns situated near their outlets) the Rosetta and the Damietta branches. The former is the more westerly, and the latter the easterly, arm of the river. These two branches enclose between them an extensive delta.1 The Delta-or Lower Egypt as that portion of the country is called-consists of a broad and watered plain crossed by numerous channels, natural or artificial. habitable part of Egypt is limited to the immediate valley of the river, which seldom is more than seven or eight miles in breadth, between the bordering chains of hills on either side. Egypt, therefore, in so far as its habitable portion is concerned, is a much less extensive country than it appears to be

upon the map.

Above the Delta, the

The Nile annually overflows its banks, the river beginning to rise above its ordinary level in the month of June, and continuing to rise daily until the latter end of September, at which time nearly the whole valley is laid under water. The waters afterwards gradually retire within their proper bed, leaving behind them a fertilising deposit, to which the abundant harvests of Egypt are due. During the time of 'high Nile" (as the season of inundation is called), only the rising grounds upon which the villages are generally built are seen above the flood, and Egypt presents the appearance of a vast inland sea-many of the inhabitants living in rafts upon the water. This periodical rise of the Nile is caused by the abundant rains in Abyssinia and the highland regions to the southward. An immense barrage has been built at Assuan for regulating the

rise of the Nile.

Egypt has a warm and dry climate. Except in the Delta, rain seldom occurs-in Upper Egypt only at long intervals, which are sometimes of two of three years' duration. The intense dryness of the air has been the means of preserving from decay the monuments of ancient art in which Egypt abounds. INHABITANTS: Egypt has nearly 10 million inhabitants, the vast majority of which are of the Arab race, the offspring of the

1. A delta is the space enclosed between the other rivers, form deltas

The extent of thes

outmost branches into which a river divides above tracts of land is continually increased by the de Such tracts of country necessarily position of sediment where the river meets the sea'

its outlet.

assume a triangular shape, resembling the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet A (Delta), whence the term is derived.

2. The rise at Cairo is about 23 feet.
3. The last Census was taken in 1897, according

between the different arms of the Nile that the Ha fa, the then southern limit of Egypt, together It was to the region enclosed to which the population of Egypt, north of Wadi

term was origina ly applied by the Greeks. It has become extended, in modern geography, to all similar tracts of land. The Danube, the Rhine,

with that of the Isthunus of Suez, the territory of El Arish on the coast of the Levant and on the frontier of Syria, and the Red Sea Coast from

the Volga, the Ganges, the Indus, the Amazon, Suez to Kossier, was 9.734.000, a density of 746

the Zambesi, the Niger, and a great number of

on the settled area.

7.

Arab settlers in Egypt within the period that immediately succeeded the Mohammedan conquest in the 10th century.

The Egyptian Arabs constitute the agricultural population or fellahîn, as they are called. The descendants of the ancient Egyptian (or Coptic) race are about 500,000 in number. There are Turks (the ruling people), with Armenians, Syrians, Jews, and Franks or Europeans, in the towns. The foreigners in Egypt number about 100,000.

The Egyptian people are almost uniformly followers of the Mohammedan religion, except in the case of the Copts-descendants of the ancient Egyptians -who form a Christian Church, under the Patriarch of Alexandria, who resides at Cairo.

INDUSTRIES: The industry of the Egyptian population is almost exclusively devoted to the culture of the soil. The inundations of the Nile fertilize the land, and the limits reached by the waters of the river mark the extent of cultivation.

To regulate the rise of the Nile, caused by the seasonal rains of Abyssinia and the highlands to the south, an immense dam has been built at Assuan, a barrage and lock at Assuit, and a barrage at Zifla. The irrigation works connected with the reservoirs thus formed, enable large areas of the country, previous'y barren, to be brought into cultivation.

Three crops are gathered in Egypt each year. Abundant harvests of wheat, dhurra, and other grains are raised, and cotton is grown to a considerable extent in the plains of the Delta, raw cotton and cotton seeds being exported in 1905 to the United Kingdom to the value of nearly 13% millions sterling. Flax, sugar, hemp, tobacco, coffee, saffron, mulberries, and dates, all enter into the list of Egypt an agricultural produce. The cotton and surplus corn of Egypt are exported chiefly to England, and the manufactured productions of Western Europe are imported in return. The trade of Egypt, both foreign and internal, has vastly increased since the construction of the Alexandria and Suez Railway, which re-opened the ancient route between Egypt and India, but the transit trade over this line declined after the opening of the Suez Canal, which is now the great highway of communication between Europe and the East.COMMERCE: Nearly half of the foreign trade of Egypt, which amounts to over 481⁄2 millions sterling a year, is carried on with Great Britain, which takes exports to the value of nearly 131⁄2 millions, and imports to the value of nearly 8 millions. About 9 per cent, of the trade is carried on with Turkey, and 8 per cent. with France and Austria.

The principal articles of export from Egypt to Great Britain are raw cotton and cotton seed, sugar, beans, and wheat, with tobacco and rice. The chief imports of British origin are cotton goods, coal, iron and machinery. The trade and industry of Egypt have wonderfully revived since the occupation of the country by the British.

Nearly the whole of the foreign trade of the country passes through ALEXANDRIA, though a large business is also done at PORT SAID, SUEZ, DAMILTTA, and ROSETTA. Alexandria has commodious docks, wharfs, and quays, and the Government has constructed a new pass, 300 feet long and 30 feet deep, to enable vessels to run directly into the harbour during stormy weather.

1. By the Convention of 1887, the canal has been eutralized, and is exempted from blockade. Vesse's of all nations, whether armed or not, can pass through it in peace or war.

The canal was commenced in 1859 and completed In 1869. Its total length, from Port Said, on the Meniterranean (about 40 miles east of Damietta), to Suez, at the head of the Red Sea, is 87 miles 56 miles of actual canal and 21 miles of lakes. It is sufficiently deep to allow vessels drawing 26 feet inches of water to pass through, but vessels cannot

pass each other except at the "sidings." It is
being widened sufficiently, however, to obviate this
inconvenience. By the use of the electric light,
vesse's can now pass through it by night as well as
by day. The harbour at Port Said was artificia ly
formed, and the entire cost of the canal and sub-
sidiary works was over 20 millions sterling. In
1876, the British Government bought the Khedive's
shares for £4,000,000.

Nearly 3,500 vessels pass through the can every
year, and more than half the tourage is British,
R

514

CLASS-BOOK OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY.

GOVERNMENT: Egypt is nominally a dependency of Turkey, but the Khedive1, as the present ruler is styled, is virtually independent of the Porte.

From 1879-1882, two Controllers-General, appointed by Britain and France, jointly directed affairs, but this joint control was abolished in January, 1883, by the Khedive, after England had alone subdued a military rising headed by Arabi Pasha, and an English financial adviser was appointed, who has a veto on all financial matters; and the re-organisation of the native army was entrusted to a British general with the title of Sirdar. The army now consists of about 16,000 men, and there is also a British army of occupation numbering nearly 5,000.

"

The two great divisions are those of "Masr el Bahri" or Lower Egypt-the Nile Delta-and El Saïd" or Upper Egypt, which extends southwards from the Delta to Wady Halfa, on the Nile, but for administrative purposes Egypt proper is divided into 15 mudiriehs, or provinces, and 5 mohafzas, or governor. ships of principal towns.

TOWNS: The only two really large cities of modern Egypt are Cairo and Alexandria. The former is the capital of the country, and the latter its chief seaport.

CAIRO (570) stands on the right or eastern bank of the Nile, a short distance above the head of the Delta. It owes its origin to the Arab conquerers of Egypt, by whom it was founded in the year 970, and it is still an important centre of traffic between the East and the West, but its importance in this respect has greatly declined since the opening of the Suez Canal, previous to which the "overland route" passed from Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, to Cairo, and thence to Suez, at the head of the Red Sea. Cairo is connected by railway with each of those places, and also with Upper Egypt. It is the largest city in Africa, the official residence of the Khedive, and a favourite winter resort for Europeans.

the cities of the Roman world.

ALEXANDRIA (320) is a city of much older date. Its name commemorates that of Alexander the Great, by whom it was founded in the year 332 B.C. It at once became a flourishing emporium of commercial intercourse, and grew rapidly into a splendid city, and ultimately ranked only second in place among It was long the chief centre of Greek learning under the Ptolemies and of early Christianity in the second and third centuries. Alexandria was taken by the Mohammedans in 640, after a siege of 14 months In modern times the city flourished until the outbreak of the rebellion headed by Arabi Pasha, when the forts were bombarded by the British fleet in June 1882, and the town was fired and pillaged by the rebel troops and Arabs. Under the British occupation it has, however, revived, and is daily becoming of greater importance as the centre of the trade of Egypt with foreign countries. Tel el Kebir, in the Delta, was the scene of the decisive defeat of Arabi Pasha by the

British in 1882.

Rosetta (18) on the western, and Damietta (34) on the eastern, mouth of

the Nile, were formerly important seaports.

Suez (12), on the Gulf of Suez, at

the head of the Red Sea, belongs to Egypt, though it is Arabian rather than Egyptian by geographical position. It is now the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, which, crossing the isthmus of that name, connects the MediterPort Said (42), on the Mediterranean, to the east of Damietta, is the northern terminus of the Suez Canal. Siut, in Upper Egypt,

ranean with the Red Sea.

1. Mehemet Ali, the founder of the present dynas-treaties with foreign powers and maintaining za ty, after having in 181r massacred the Mamelukes at ariny, so that he is virtually an independent sore. Cairo, and thus made himself absolute ruler of the reign. The suzerainty of the Sultan, however, Ibrahim Pasha, invaded and conquered Syria. tribute of about £E 670,000. (Egyptian equals country, revolted from Turkey, and in 1830 his son, is still acknowledged by the payment of an annual

Syria, however, was restored to the Porte, but the

succession to the throne of Egypt was made here

ios 6d. sterling).

2. Rosetta is celebrated for the discovery made

ditary. The Sultan's authority in Egypt gradually at it of what is known as the "Rosetta Stone,"

which has enabled Egyptologists to decipher the In hieroglyphies on the monuments and temples of

declined, and in 1866 the title of "Khidéwi-Misr,"
or King of Egypt, was granted to the Pasha.
1873, the Khedive obtai ed the right of concluding ancient Egypt.

was formerly the terminus of the Nile Valley Railway, but it is now open to Assuan, and is being extended further up the Nile. The Nile, however, is freely navigable, beyond Siut, as far as Wady Halfa on the Second Cataract, whence two railways run, the one along the right bank of the Nile to Kerma, 70 miles further south, and the other across the desert to Berber and Khartum. The objects regarded with most interest in Egypt are the works of a past age. The numerous antiquities that are found within the Nile valley supply an unfailing field of study to the admirer of ancient art. Amongst these monuments of bygone greatness are pyramids, tombs, temples, palaces, colossal statues, obelisks, sphinxes, and many other works.

The pyramids of Ghizeh and the ruins of Thebes are the two more special localities which possess the kind of interest here referred to. The Pyramids are within a few miles' distance of Cairo, on the western bank of the river, and the well-known figure of the Sphynx, of colossal magnitude, is in their neighbourhood. The Ruins of Thebes are in a higher part of the Nile valley, within Upper Egypt, and are spread over a vast space upon either side of the river. Assuan (the ancient Syene), on the right bank of the Nile, is 150 miles above the ruins of Thebes. The valley of the Nile becomes here con. tracted to a mere ravine, and a ledge of rock which crosses the bed of the river immediately above Assuan forms what is called the First Cataract, which, like all the so-called cataracts of the Nile, is really a mere rapid.

The Libyan Desert, to the westward of the Nile, contains several cases, which are regarded as forming part of Egypt. The largest of these, distinguished as the Great Oasis, is immediately west of the ruins of Thebes. The others are known as the Little Oasis, the Western Oasis, and the Oasis of Siwah. The last is the most northwardly of the number, and lies at a further distance than the others from the Nile. It contains a celebrated fountain-the supposed "Fountain of the Sun"-and the ancient temple of Jupiter Ammon, which Alexander the Great visited, was situated in this oasis.

THE BARBARY STATES.

THE BARBARY STATES' extend from the Atlantic along the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to the confines of Egypt. They include the Empire or Sultanate of Morocco, the French Colony of Algeria, the French Protectorate of Tunis, and the Turkish Vilayet or Province of Tripoli.

The total area of these North African countries is about 880,000 square miles, or 11 times as large as Great Britain and Ireland, while the population amounts to about 12 to 15 millions.

The inhabitants of Northern Africa include the Berbers, or, as they are called in Algeria, the Kabyles, who dwell in the mountains and in the scattered villages throughout the Atlas region; Moors, who are the inhabitants of the cities, and Arabs, who live in the more open parts of the interior, principally within their own encampments; Negroes and Negroids from the trans-Saharan countrics; and Jews, chiefly the descendants of those driven at various periods from Europe. In Algeria and Tunis there are also a great number of European settlers, chiefly French, Spaniards, Italians, and Maltese. The Berbers are the descendants of the original inhabitants of this region, which is named after them. The Moors are a mixed race, sprung from unions between the natives and the Arabs and other invaders who have at various periods settled in this region.

1. So called from the Berbers, the original, or at any rate the earliest known, inhabitants of Northern Africa