is
the chief seaport of Egypt and exports the cotton, grain, sugar, rice,
and other productions of the valley of the Nile. As the train passed
rapidly southward through the delta of the Nile, we realized that we
were in a land entirely different from any that we had previously
visited. The trip of one hundred and thirty miles to Cairo will be
remembered by the tourists as a panoramic succession of interesting
pictures of agricultural life. The land on both sides of the railway was
a black, sandy loam, level almost as a floor, intersected and broken
only by the canals and irrigation ditches. For some distance out of
Alexandria the Mahmudiyeh canal was in sight.

"There is a scene that is familiar to me!" exclaimed one of the party.
"A landscape hanging in the art gallery of our city represents the light
blue water of a canal mirroring tufted palms and wing-like sails. It
was painted by a noted artist, who has successfully reproduced many
beautiful Egyptian views."

[Illustration: "WANT A GUIDE? WANT A GUIDE?" THEY INQUIRED.]

Nile boats with breeze-filled canvas, caravans of camels on the
embankment of the canal, and trains of donkeys laden with marketing for
the city by the sea, seemed stationary as we rushed by. The land
appeared to be thoroughly cultivated. There were no fences or waste
corners in sight. Every foot of workable ground was utilized for raising
crops.

[Illustration: EACH ARAB'S CART CONTAINED HIS WIVES.]

"Irrigation makes this almost rainless region the most fruitful on the
globe," remarked one of the managers of the tour. "By the aid of
irrigation the Egyptian farmers can raise two or three crops every year.
To do so, however, they must labor incessantly and give the land
thorough cultivation. Irrigation with them is not opening the gates of a
sluiceway and letting the water flow over the land. It means severe
labor, pumping the water up from the ditches, canals, or river, in which
the surface of the water may be ten or twenty feet below the surface
of the land. The pumps are the same kind that the people used in the
days of the Pharaohs, and the methods of cultivation are the same as in
those ancient times, without modern agricultural implements or modern
machinery. Three crops, therefore, does not mean great prosperity, but
simply enables the Egyptian farmer to pay taxes that would seem enormous
to an American farmer, and then to have a surplus sufficient to supply
his very moderate wants."