225
this taydry specimen jof the Mahomedan urehiteel ure of the present age.
During our ten days’ stay in Cairo we vis- iced many places and objects of interest, One fine cool morning we crossed in a boat to the island of Rheda, where the Pasha lias a palace in the midst of a beantifal garden, fragrant with orange blossoms. Iiere, ac- cording to tradition the infant Moses was launehed among the bulrushes and found by Pharaoh’s danghter. While musing on the strange scenes which this old river had wit- uessed, ile Hues of Dr. Jlolines cceurred to ine, in which he comically inquires the whereabouts of the good, fur-gone days of Hluldlined; with their brightness and fresh- ness:
“Where, oh, where are life's lilies ane roses, Bathed in the golden dawn’s smile? Dead as the hulrushes "round Jittle Moses, On the old banks of the Nile."
Here on the {sland of Rhoda is the famed Nilometer, a slender stone pillar in the cen- ter of a weil, graduated with cubits—one of the most ancient relies of 1 remote age, Herodotus mentions that the measuvement of the river's rise and fall, therchy to calen- Jate the probable extent of the liarvest, was a part of the priesteraft of the Pharaohs.
Returning to the main shore we visited Boulae, a portion of the eily whieh eoutains an immense government foundry and a mtu seum of Egyptian antiquities. In this neighborhood we had been told were ihe granaries of Joseph—the first great specu- lator in wheat of whom we have aay record} —bul we were nnable to find them, and J wmi inelined to think them a mith.
We also visifed the Shoebra gardens and yeitaee, having first obtainal a government orter through onr Consul, The drive to this fumotis pluee is through « splendid ave- une four miles long, shaded by very linge ant old syeamore trees, Ifere in the center of a beautiful garden was the favorite palaec of old Mohamet Al. Sparkling fountains, marble kiosks, elegant furnitnre, divans embroid- ered with gold aud covered with the rich- est broeade, decorations of finest alabaster, nothing hat been spareal to make this au earthly paradise. The pres- ent Vieeroy varely comes here, but keeps up the pluee in honor of his graud- futher, whose memory is held in great re- spect. Mohamet Ali, whose portraits hang on the walls and appear in several places among the freseoes, is represented ax a griz- aly old Turk, with an immense white beard, in Oriental turban and costume, surrounded
