THE RIVER NILE. No river in the world has attracted so much observation, and given rise to so many false conjectures and absurd speculations, as the Nile. Probably no river in the world so well deserves the attention of mankind. The camel or dromedary, in the eyes of the Arab, is rightly considered as the first of quadrupeds; in many parts of his wild country he is entirely dependant upon it for existence. To the Laplander the reindeer is equally necessary, and to the Kamtschatkan the dog. But no race of animals can afford to mankind so many benefits as this most bountiful river. It is, to the inhabitant of the region through which it passes, at once food, wealth, and happiness. Were it to withhold its annual tribute for one season, thousands who depend upon it for life must inevitably perish. Passing, for the extent of nearly two thousand miles, through a desert of sand, it may be said to have reclaimed, and placed at the disposal of man, territories which else must for ever have remained unoccupied and waste. This it has accomplished, by every year, at a particular season, overflowing its banks to a considerable distance on either side; and when the water has sunk into the ground, or has been exhaled into the atmosphere by the heat of the sun, it is found to have left upon the earth a rich and fertilizing sediment, that has been washed down during the progress of the river through more fruitful countries. This sediment, or mud, consists chiefly of alumine and carbonate of magnesia, and therefore contains within itself the principles of vegetation, and requires no manure to fit it for the purposes of the husbandman. It acquires, too, a fresh coating with every inundation, and at length a fine alluvial soil has been deposited, that enables the sower, without any cultivation, to obtain a most abundant harvest. As, owing to the excessive dryness of the climate, it would be impossible, without these inundations, to raise a crop even from the rich mould already deposited, we may imagine the misery and ruin that would visit the people of Egypt were the Nile for one year to withhold its usual supply. The overflowing of this river has from the earliest ages engaged the attention of philosophers, and long baffled their endeavours to ascertain its cause; and it has not until late years been ever clearly understood.*-Saturday Magazine. THE ANCIENT IDUMEA. It would be a profitable exercise for the juvenile reader, and not an unprofitable one for some who are not juvenile, to turn to the passages of Scripture referred to in the following interesting extract, and to mark how they establish the various positions of the writer. The general position of Edom will be sufficiently understood, by supposing a line to be drawn connecting the extremities of the two forks of the Red Sea. The southward of that line is what is usually called the Sinaitic Peninsula: to the northward, toward Palestine, is Arabia Petræa. The mountains to the eastward are Idumea. A line being supposed to be drawn southward, from Gaza to the top of the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, rather less than half way down are the ruins of Petra, once the capital of Edom, lately explored by M. de Laborde. WE learn from Genesis, that before any king reigned over Israel, no fewer than eight kings had succeeded each other in the government of the land of Edom, or Idumea; and that these kings were followed by eleven dukes, the descendants of Esau, the father of the Edomites. Gen. xxxvi, 31-43. The fertility of its territory was announced in the blessing given by Isaac to Esau. Gen. xxvii, 39. *This matter is explained in the Youth's Magazine, vol. i, p. 97. Its highly cultivated state appears, moreover, from the description given of it by the messengers of Moses, when they requested permission for the Israelites to pass through Edom, in their way from Egypt to the promised land. Num. xx, 17–21. The great wealth possessed by Job, an inhabitant of that country, at a period probably even still more remote than the visit of the Israelites, proves that Idumea had then been long settled. Indeed, the whole of the beautiful composition in which his trials are recorded displays a state of society in which a gradation of classes was acknowledged, the fine arts were not unknown, luxury prevailed to a very considerable extent, the operations of war had been reduced to order, commerce by sea and land had been carried on with foreign countries, and almost all the ordinary mechanical trades with which we are now acquainted afforded occupation to numerous families. Fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand asses, not only bespoke the princely rank of Job, but also indicated his extensive territorial possessions; oxen being principally employed, in the East, in ploughing the soil, and treading out the corn. We learn, from the calamities which that virtuous man suffered in the early period of his life, that at one time Uz, or Idumea, his native place, was subject to the incursions of the Sabeans and Chaldeans: but, from a variety of circumstances, we may infer, that, with some occasional exceptions, the country in general enjoyed tranquillity, and a high state of prosperity. The year and the months were regularly defined. Kings and other great men had been accustomed to build for themselves splendid tombs. Job iii, 14. They possessed great wealth in gold and silver. Job iii, 15. Traditions even then prevailed of treasures anciently concealed in the earth. Job iii, 21. The vicissitudes of famine brought on by war, which prevented the |