New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-20

watching the grazing animals OF squatting on their
heels in the sun and doing nothing. fresh balmy
smell of vegetation enters the open windows as we
speed along. The temperature makes the breeze
welcome yet our wooden garments are none TOO
warm. 1t is like warm Spring without It's IAN
guOr, or Summer tempered by high mountain ar
| About 40 miles from Alexandria we approach the
large town of Damanhoor the capital OF nearly All
the agricultural region west of the Nile, with which
it is connected by navigable canal Some hund-
reds of previous mud towns must have crumbled
into ruin and been again built upon to form the
mound upon which the present place is built. lts
material Also is chiefly mud but the lines OF the
houses, gathering I'M Ito use the builders term
like the pylons of old temples give them certain
stateness 1t was either market-day, or far was
being held: thousands of men, women, children
camels oxen and asses filled the open space on the
western slope of the mound, and crowds OF the curl
ously-inclined thronged about the station. The
Egyptian passengers bought heads of lettuce which
they ate with great relish, curds, and cakes OF
coarse dark bread. The waterjars were also in de-
mand for the washing of hands; 80 that the railway
thus far seemed to have adapted itself to native
| habits rather than to have modified them Inc
| people who came to look at the train were simply
| ders to whom neither locomotives nor Franks were
any longer an astonishment: the innovation was ac-
cepted AS part of the Inevitable. As Progressist,
ought to have been disappointed; but am afraid
there was feeling of satisfaction at the bottom OF
my unregenerate nature, on finding that the Oren-
| tai repose has not yet been seriously shaken.
! Our glimpse of the fair at Damanhoor was like a
tabeau upon which the curtain falls before has
| fairly seen it. The main country road, however,
ran side by side with the railway for ten OF fifteen
miles further, and gave the view of an almost
unbroken procession of people on their way to mar
| ket. Nothing could have been more varied and PFC
| turesque. A Copt in his black mantle, bulged out
by the wind as he sat on his donkey camel laden
with sacks of grain, on the top of which was
perched coop full of chickens; q whole Fellah
family partly on foot, the men riding, the women
with bundles balanced on their heads +; naked boy,
washing himself in pool left in the drying canal
a peddler resting cross-egged in the sun, and as
grave as the Pope giving his benedction to the
world; an Egyptian officer, prancing along on
horseback with his pipe-bearer, in white and scar
| let, running in advance-these were the chief
figures in q procession which strongly relieved,
in color against the Deep juicy of the wheat
fields or the pale pearly blue of the air. But for
these figures, the Delta would have resembled an
Illinois prairie as much as anything.
At noon we reached the Nile, crossing it by mag
nifcent iron bridge to the town of Kafr ezZyat,
where the train stops twenty minutes. There is said
!
ton, and suspect few passengers patronizc it, OF
guide would have been on hand. Lettuce, stalks OF
sugar-cane and fig paste were abundantly offered,
also oranges grmy with much handling. We were
the only Frank travellers, and undoubtedly received
les, attention than if we had come by the express
The sub-conductor was the only person who seemed
at all interested in our fortunes, and his purpose
| therein was evident from the start. But we had
prudenty brought a lunch with us, and so enjoyed
| the stop at Kafr ez-Zyat, which might otherwise
| have been disappointment.
For II miles further, to Tantah, the country is
superb agricultural picture Every foot of it yields
rich return, and the soil does not seem to require
| more than weeks rest between crops. Wheat is
now a foot high, barley is coming into head horse.
beans are in blossom. and the almondtrees are fair
with Young leaves. Looking toward the sun, the
| wide level cleaned like perfect emerald. The dark
| brown loam as it was turned by the plow, crumbled
| with meowness which would have made an Amer
| lean farmers mouth water. With such soil, and
under such sky the labor in the fields seemed to be
half play But the Egyptian Fellah with all his ca
pacity for incidence, is by no means lazy man, On
| the contrary, he is steady and cheerful worker,
whenever compelled by necessity, or directed by an
| authority which he respects. Few people, IN pro-
portion to their means and the development OF their
resources are at present heavily taxed and none
|
| Tantah is large and lively town. and possesses
one of the forty or fifty palaces Of the Khedive
Other railways branch from it down the Delta; the
station is spacious and unusually Clean and for the
first time since leaving Alexandria there large
accession of passengers. Many of the recently built
houses are Italian in character handsomely succeed
| and painted, and EMPOWERED in pleasant gardens
| This was all could observe of place which hope
to revisit and describe more particularly III week
| OF two.
The further stretch of 20 miles before reaching the
| Damietta arm of the Nile only repeated what we
| had already seen. Once the fertile alluylal PLAN
was interrupted by sand-island-a low ridge four
or five miles in length, which appeared to have been
blown from the Eastern Desert, in the lapse OF many
centuries. to its present position. Such islands are
probably cratic in their character like those IN
| Northern Germany and might be made stationary
| by the same means-that is covering them with
certain tenacious grasses and shrubs. Their eleva
tion above the plain is so slight that they might even
be irrigated and thus lose their barrenness. lsaw 10
fact the beginning of the latter process at several
| points along the road.
Rut for the palm-tree and the mud villages, this
mart of the Delta might be compared to the richest
| lowlands of England in early June, The deep col
ors of the vegetation and the soft, changing hues Oh
| the sky prevented it from becoming monotonous 10
| the eve When we had crossed the second Mic ana
passed the fOurshing town Of Benha, where the rail-
| way sends off a branch to Ismailia and suez the
| country became even moro densely populated. This
region is the Goshen of the Israelites and one can
| hardly wonder that many of them sighed for It's
fesh-pots while following Moses through the bleak
valleys of Sinai At this point you see two FAR blue
peaks, rising above the palms and tamarisks on the
southwestern horizon, and know them to be the
Pyramids by the precision of their outlines.