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 A R A B I A had 564 miles of main. line, with 2050 miles of minor distributaries, I Ismail Pasha. A charge of peculation was made against and irrigated 519,022 acres of crops. The new bridge replaces one j him in connexion with this expedition and he was placed of much smaller size (five spans of 35 feet), which was completely on half-pay. During this time he joined a secret society destroyed by a high flood in July 1885. It gives the river a formed by Ali Roubi with the object of getting rid of waterway of 21,000 square feet, and the canal a waterway of 1040 square feet, the latter representing a discharge of 4100 cubic feet Turkish officers from the Egyptian army. In 1878 he per second. Its length is 1310 feet, and it is carried on fifteen was employed by Ismail in fomenting a disturbance against arches having a span of 60 feet. The width between the faces of the ministry of Nubar, Wilson, and De Blignieres, and the arches is 149 feet. The foundations below the river-bed have received in payment a Avife from Ismail’s harem and the a depth of 52 feet, and the total height of the structure is 88 feet. It cost 44^ lakhs of rupees, and occupied four years in building. command of a regiment. This increased his influence with The foundations consist of 268 circular brick cylinders, and the the secret society, Avhich, under the feeble government of fifteen spans are arranged in three groups, divided by abutment Tewfik Pasha and the Dual Control, began to agitate piers ; the latter are founded on a double row of 12-feet cylinders, against Europeans. A military demonstration on 8th and the intermediate piers on a single row of 20-feet cylinders, all the cylinders being hearted with hydraulic lime concrete filled in September 1881, led by Arabi, forced the Khedive to with skips. This" aqueduct-bridge has a very fine appearance, increase the numbers and pay of the army, to substitute owing to its massive proportions and design. Cherif Pasha for Riaz Pasha as prime minister, and to For an account of the New York aqueducts see the Report of the convene an assembly of notables. Arabi became underAqueduct Commissioners, 1887-95, and The Water Supply of the secretary for war at the beginning of 1882, but continued City of New York, 1896, by Wegmann. For accounts of other aqueducts, see the Transactions of the Societies of Engineers in the his intrigues. The Assembly of Notables claimed the right of voting the budget, and thus came into conflict different countries, and the Engineering Journals. (e. p. H.*) with the foreign controllers who had been appointed to Aqilila, a town and bishop’s see of Italy (Abruzzi guard the interests of the bondholders in the management and Molise), capital of the province of Aquila, situated of the Egyptian finances. Cherif fell in February, and in the Central Apennines, at the S.W. foot of the knot Arabi (created a pasha) became minister of war. Fortified of Gran Sasso d’ltalia, 145 miles N.E. from Rome by by the honours bestowed on him by the sultan, Arabi, rail. There are two picture galleries, one in the town after a brief fall from office, acquired a dictatorial power hall, the other in the Dragonetti (formerly De Torres) that alarmed the British Government. His arming of the Palace, and an industrial arts and sciences school. forts at Alexandria was held to constitute a menace to the University classes are held here. Owing to its altitude fleet. On the refusal of France to co-operate, the British (2366 ft.), it is a favourite summer resort of the Italians. fleet bombarded the forts (11th July), and a British force, Population of commune (1881), 18,426; (1901), 21,215; under Sir Garnet Wolseley, defeated Arabi on 13 th of province (1881), 353,027; (1901), 397,645. September at Tel-el-Kebir. Arabi surrendered, and was tried (3rd December) for the crime of rebellion. In Arabi Pasha (more correctly Ahmad 'Arab!, to accordance with an understanding made Avith the British which in later years he added the epithet al-Misri, “ the representative, Lord DufFerin, Arabi pleaded guilty, and Egyptian”), Egyptian soldier and revolutionary leader, the formal sentence of death was immediately commuted was born in LoAver Egypt in 1839, of a fellah family. to one of banishment for life to Ceylon. After his exile Having entered the army as a conscript he was made an had lasted for nearly twenty years, hoAvever, the Khedive, officer by Said Pasha in 1862, and was employed in the Abbas II., exercised his prerogative of mercy, and in May transport department in the Abyssinian campaign under 1901 Arabi was permitted to return to Egypt. 512

ARA B I A. DURING the last quarter of the 19th century several notable journeys were made through Northern, Central, and Southern Arabia Avhich, although they have led to no essential modification of previous views regarding the general physiography of that country, have added considerably to our knowledge of its topographical detail. Very little systematic survey has been possible in a country so remote from the centres of scientific movement, and so hostile to foreign interference. The eastern coast has been connected with the Indian system of triangulation across the Strait of Hormuz; and from Aden a local topographical survey has been carried into the southern offshoots of the Yemen Mountains by officers of the Indian Survey, based on a triangulation which is independent of India. Amongst recent investigations the researches of Dr Walker in the Sinai Peninsula have thrown new light on the coral formations of the western coast, and have elucidated some interesting problems in connexion with Arabian desert formations. According to this authority the change in surface configuration of the desert sands of Northern Arabia is due to no change in climatic factors It is governed by the same laws to-day as it was thousands ol years ago. Sand formations are produced by the differences of temperature (50° to 80° F.), to which the surface rock is daily exposed. The rock is first broken up by these differences into small fragments, which are polished

and rounded by the action of wind-blown sand. Granite, especially, disintegrates rapidly on account of the difference in the specific heat of its constituent parts. Then the wind action again separates the component parts and forms broad spaces in the desert, of which the sand particles may consist uniformly either of mica or of quartz. But as regards recent illustration of the conformation and geology of the Arabian continent generally, it is to the researches of Doughty and Blunt, between the years 1876 and 1878, and to those of Theodore Bent subsequently, that we are most indebted for fresh material from English sources. Doughty accompanied the annual pilgrimage, or “haj,” from Damascus to Mecca, stopping at Medyin Salih (some 150 miles north-west of Medina) to copy Nabathaean inscriptions and explore the monuments of El Hajr. During the spring of 1877 he visited Nejd, returning again to El Hajr and exploring the cool and lofty Harrat during the summer. He afterwards journeyed northwards to Teyma, in the Nefud, and eastwards to Hail, the residence and capital of the Emir Ibn Rashid. From Hail he returned south-west to Khaybar, crossing an upland region of lavafields and extinct volcanoes, which he believes to be the true water-parting between east and west in Northern Arabia. In the spring of 1878 he again returned to Nejd, visiting Aneyza and Boreyda, which he describes as its two most