Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/388

 312 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. persons, and which will not fail to act as a check on the exercise of British power. Undoubtedly the new masters possess a certain means by which they can make themselves, if not loved, at least respected by the people. For they have it in their power to restore the land to its cultivators, to rescue them from the usurers who absorb their substance, to assure them an impartial justice, and to leave " Egypt more and more to the Egyptians." But what Government ever possessed this virtue of gradually effacing itself ? Will that of Great Britain set the example ? If the solemn and reiterated affirmations of the heads of the English Government are to be believed, their only ambition is to re-establish order in the finances and government of Egypt, and then, this pious work accomplished, to withdraw, leaving their successors to follow the good example they have set. GEOnRAPHICAL EXPLORATION. Connected as it is with the circle of attraction of European politics, Egypt is naturally one of the best-explored countries of the African continent. At the time of the French expedition towards the end of last century, the numerous scientific men who accompanied Bonaparte, Desaix, and Kleber, thoroughly studied the land from the various standpoints of its mineralogy, geology, the history of the soil, hydrography, annals, architecture, manners and customs, and the social economy of the country, and their joint labours still constitute the most considerable scientific monument which exists regarding the lower Nile valley. The general map, which they drew up to the scale of Yis^J^ins^jry ^^^ ^^^® remained in many respects the most complete that we possess, notably for Upper Egypt, or Said. The smaller map that Linant de Bellefonds, Director of Public Works in Egypt, caused to be engraved, is another valuable document. But, beyond the salient features of the country, defined by the rocky backbone which bounds the verdant plains, the outlines of the land change yearly, and any local maps, drawn up with the greatest care during the preceding generation, would have to be nearly entirely recast. On one hand the slopes of the Nile have been eaten away by the water ; on the other, alluvial deposits have been developed, which the fellahin have already embanked and commenced to cultivate. Choked up canals have been replaced by other irrigating channels, whilst routes and villages have changed both locality and name. The special maps, made for the survey of the great domains, constantly assign them different outlines. On the other hand, the " Arabian " and " Libyan" deserts are still imknown, except along the track of a few explorers, on one side between the Nile and the ports of the Red Sea, and on the other in the direction of the oases. It is time that the country in which Eratosthenes, more than two thousand years ago, first measured an arc of the meridian, should at last possess a network 'of geodetic measurements with wjiich all the local maps might be connected. But most Egyptian explorers have studied the ancient history of the people rather than their present life and the special geography of the country. When