The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-29

from Girgg on the Nile.
The corporation Of western Egypt
pos 10 build railroads 10 these
Gases. and as a consideration therefor
IL IS 10 receive soo.ooe acres OF land
and j. to have the right. for thirty
years. 10 mine the alum. ochres and
~phosphareS with which the GASES
abound A par; OF its scheme Is 10
irrigate the lands acquired by the con-
cesSion- The company estimates that
IL viii cost them about SIS per acre
To do this. and that the lands Viii sell
for SIS per acre as soon As the water
can be put upon them. Much % the
Irrigation VIII be done BY artestan
wells. some OF which have been al
ready sunk and are producing now
ing streams. The company Is com
posed or Englishmen and Egyptians
and II has a capital ~ s.. 500. 600 X
has already begun building its rail-
way. and has aid the route from the
Nile TO Kharga with a telephone equip
ment Its locomotives ana other roll
ing stock are building In England.
Through Libya by Rail.
When the railroads are completed
one Will be able To go through some
interesting parts of the Libyan desert
by train, and IL is probable that winter
resorts. similar to that at Biskra in
the sahara. viii spring up in these
t->&- 80 =
in TripoIi. 1t begins there and runs
eastward to the Nile valley. Near
Egypt il is a monotonous. stony table
land from six hundred 10 a thousand
feet above the level OF the Nile. 1t
is absolutely barren. and is without
doubt ore Of the bleakest parts OF the
globe. AS one goes westward and
nears the GASES the land drops. The
desert is cut up by ravines and cliffs.
The cases are in a depression running
for several hundred miles irregularly
north and south. lust west of them
the land is still rocky. but after about
six DAYS camel journey it changes
to an ocean of sand which extends on
and on for hundreds OF miles.
These GASES now have over thirty
thousand people. They are Moham-
medans. and include both Arabs and
Bodouins. They live in villages of mud
brick houses. each oasis having one
or more towns In Baharia there are
four villages. in Farafra one and in
Dakhla fourteen.
Dakhla is the most thickly popu-
lated of all of the GASES. 1t has over
seventeen thousand people. and it is
Watered by 420 wells. many of which
were bored by the Romans. All of
these villages have mosques. In khar-
ga there are 1900 people in one viii
Iage, and it is the seat Of the Egyp-
49, ~ - SR'N y u ~ -
ment doctor there and also a tele-
graph office. Many of the inhabitants
have never been outside the GASES. and
they are said to be interesting to an
extreme. They grow fruit. and dates,
exporting the latter to Egypt.
The new expects to raise
rice. wheat and barley. as well as
cotton and sisal hemp. It has already
planted many thousand date palms
and large orchards of oranges, olives
and pomegranates.
The Fayoum.
The largest and most fertile of all
the Egyptian GASES is the Fayoum. 1t
is 50 big hat it is a separate prov
ince. It contains about $50 square
miles and has a population Of 100000.
| lies about seventy miles ~ortheas
of Cairo, and there is only a short
stlIp Of desert between it and the Nile
valley. 1t is an oval basin inclosed
by the stony Libyan hills, and water
ed by a great canal which some say
was first built by joseph and others.
that it was a branch Of the Nile and
needed only to be widened and deep
ened. The canal which feeds it now
is called the Bahr Yusef, which means
Joseph,s canal. It begins a mile or
so north Of AssOnit and flows through
upper Egypt, watering the Nile val
ley until about seventy miles above
liz With II luI1S 10 the le1t ana
flows through a break in the hills into
the Fayoum depression. The canal is
270 miles long. l have seen it where
it begins near Assent. and it looks
like a vide and deep river,
In ancient times a great lake formed
a part of the Faycum. It was $50
miles around and in places was 300
feet deem 1t wa used as a reservoir
to supply the Delta with water, in
times Of 10 While. and a canal goo
feet wide connected it with the Nile
river. This was the Lake Moeris. men,
toned BY H~erodotus and also by the
geographer Strabo. That lake has
now almost disappeared. and it's bed
is covered by some of the rich est farms
in the world. The only part of it
which remains is Lake Karun. thirty
five miles long and six miles wide,
which lies at the northwestern edge
of the depression at the foot of the
Libyan hills. A great part of the land
about the lake is desert. and it's banks
are covered with reeds and tamarisk
shrubs. It's water is slightly brack-
ish. but the people drink it. It con-
tains fish and the right to fish in it is
let out by the government to one man.
who allows the men living on the
banks to ply their trade, n in re-
turn receives one-half the catch.
Some of the best fruits and most
beautiful flowers of Egypt come from
the Fayoum. A railroad has been
built into it which with the
main Egyptian system, and one can
go from Cairo to Medinet. its capital.
in -four hours. There are two trains
each way every day and there is con
siderable travel from one place to the
other At Medinet there are branch
railroads which reach every part of
the oasis, and there is a system of
tramways which includes a number of
villages.
The Labyrinth.
The Fayoum is not often visited by
tourists, although it contains some
of the most wonderful ruins Of an
Gent Egypt. There is a pyramid about
five miles from Medinet in which a
mummy of an ancient king was re-
Gently found. and there are sone
traces left Of the Labyrinth described
by Strabo n other travellers. The
Labyrinth Is aid to have been quite
as wonderful as the pyramids. It was
situated On the banks of Lake Moe
rls and was a asst palace, which had
5000 rooms. half Of which were
above ground and half below. The
buildings composing the palace were
connected bv long covered paSSa pee