The water begins to rise early in June, but it is not until the
latter half of July that it swells to a mighty tide. By the end of
September the inundation is at its greatest height. The country is
now submerged, and presents the appearance of a sea of turbid water,
from which the towns and villages, built on higher ground, rise like
islands. For about a month the flood remains nearly stationary, then
sinks more and more rapidly, till by December or January the river
has returned to its ordinary bed. With the approach of summer the
level of the water continues to fall. In the early days of June the
Nile is reduced to half its ordinary breadth; and Egypt, scorched by
the sun, blasted by the wind that has blown from the Sahara for many
days, seems a mere continuation of the desert. The trees are choked
with a thick layer of grey dust. A few meagre patches of vegetables,
watered with difficulty, struggle painfully for existence in the
immediate neighbourhood of the villages. Some appearance of verdure
lingers beside the canals and in the hollows from which the moisture
has not wholly evaporated.
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