| 47. Its soil, shape, and area
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FIG. 23. AN EGYPTIAN SHADOOF,
THE OLDEST OF
The man below stands in the water, holding his leather bucket
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device (Fig. 23)
exactly like the well sweep of our grandfathers in New England. The irrigation
trenches are thus kept full of water until the grain ripens. This shows
us that Egypt enjoys no rain.
The black soil we see from the train is un- excelled in fertility, and it is enriched each year by the overflow of the river, whose turbid waters rise above its banks every summer, spread far over the flats (Fig. 24), and stand there long enough to deposit a very thin layer of rich earthy sedi- ment. This sediment has built up the Nile Delta which we are now crossing. The Delta and the valley above, as far as the First Cataract, contain together over ten thousand square miles of cultivable soil, or somewhat more than the state of Vermont. As our train approaches the southern [NEXT]
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