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GUSQUIZA, Juan Bautista, hoo-än' bä-tes'tä a-goos-ke'thä, Paraguayan statesman: b. Asunción, 1845. He was a lieutenant-colonel in the war with Uruguay, Brazil and the Argentine Republic, later being appointed Secretary of War and attaining the rank of general. He was president of Paraguay from 1894 to 1896.

EGYPT. (Greek, Alyvntos, Aiguptos; Hebrew,

Masor; also called מצור Mizraim or מצרים

Dine, Pathros (Is. xi, 11) and on ErezHam, "The land of Ham" (Ps. cvi, 22). Assyrian KI, Musri; Arabic, Misr or Masr. In Hieroglyphics, Kamt). Its present name is derived from the Greek, Aiguptos (meaning obscure). The Hebrew name Mizraim, is the dual form of Mazor (a fortified or walled-in place or country), viz., two Mazors, "Upper and Lower Egypt." But its principal name upon the monuments and in the papyri is Kami or Kamt "Black land", an appropriate name, owing to the black alluvial soil in the Nile Valley, in contradistinction to the reddish soil of the neighboring land on both sides of the Nile.

Modern Egypt is a vast country extending from the Mediterranean Sea, lat. 31° 35' to parallel 22° N. 1., called Egypt Proper, thence southward to the British possessions in equatorial Africa, which latter region (known as the Egyptian Soudan) is jointly governed by Great Britain and Egypt. The eastern boundary is the Red Sea, and on the extreme northeast, Wadyel-Arish, Syria. The western boundary runs northwest to Tripoli, and thence southeast through the Libyan desert, to a point 200 miles west of Wady-Halfa. The area of Egypt (exclusive of the Soudan) is about 363,181 square miles, the country extending 675 miles north and south, and 500 miles east and west.

Topography. In modern as in ancient times Egypt was always divided into the Upper and the Lower, or the Southern and Northern countries. At a very early period it was further subdivided into a number of departments, called nomes, varying in different ages; 42 was probably the usual number. A third great division, the Heptanomis, "seven nomes," preserved in the modern (Wustani) "Middle Egypt," was introduced at the time of the geographer Ptolemy (first half of the 2d century A.D.). Each nome had a separate local government. In the 5th century A.D., Egypt was divided into six eparchies. Augusta Prima

and Secunda on the east, Egyptiaca on the west, Arcadia (the former Heptanomis), Thebais Proxima as far as Panapolis, and Thebais Supra to Philæ. Under the Mohammedans, the triple division, Misr-el-Bahri (Lower Egypt); el-Wustani (Middle); and es-Said (Upper) has prevailed, but the number of subdivisions has varied. At present there are altogether five governments of principal towns, and 14 provinces subdivided into districts.

Egypt is connected with Asia by the Isthmus of Suez, across which runs the great canal, about 100 miles long. The inhabited portion of Egypt is mainly confined to the valley and delta of the Nile, the widest part of which does not exceed 120 miles, while in many parts of the valley it is only from 3 to 15 miles wide, and at the southern frontier of Egypt proper, only two miles. West of the Nile are several oases. Two ranges of lofty mountains, the Arabian Hills on the east and the Libyan on the west, enclose this valley. The delta of the Nile is traversed by a network of primary and secondary channels and is also intersected by numerous canals.

Seven principal channels or mouths were usually recognized in ancient times, the names of which, going from east to west, were the Pelusiac mouth, the Tanitic, the Mendesian, the Pathmitic, the Sebennytic, the Bolbitine and the Canopic. Now only the Bolbitine (called Rosetta) and the Pathmitic (Damietta), are in existence. The Nile has a current running seaward at the rate of 22 or 3 miles an hour and the stream is always deep enough for navigation. The water becomes a reddish-brown during the annual overflow; it is esteemed highly salubrious. Near the sea are the lakes Menzaleh, Birket-el-Mariut and other extensive but shallow lagoons.

The openings or lateral valleys of the hills confining the valley of the Nile are comparatively few, or, being little frequented, are not well known. Those on the east side with which we are best acquainted are the Wady-el Tili, "Valley of the Wanderings" (of the children of Israel), leading from the neighborhood of Cairo to the head of the Gulf of Suez, and that through which passes the road from Koptos to Kosseir on the Red Sea. A short distance west of the Nile and above the Delta is the fertile valley of Fayum, in the northwest and lowest part of which is the Birket-el-Kerun Lake, fed by a canal or branch from the Nile. The level of the lake is now 130 feet below that of the

Mediterranean. This lake, formerly known as Lake Moeris, covered a far larger area, and by means of sluices and other works was utilized for irrigation purposes. The deserts on the west bank of the Nile generally present to view plains of gravel or of fine drifting sand; on the east, the scene is varied by rocks and mountains.

Climate. The atmosphere in Egypt is extremely clear and dry, the temperature regular and hot, though the heat is tempered during the daytime for seven or eight months of the year by the strong wind which blows from the north and which enables sailing vessels to ascend the river against the stream. The winter months are the most delightful of the year, the air being cool and balmy and the ground covered with verdure; later, the ground becomes parched and dry, and in spring the suffocating khamseen, or simoom, frequently blows into the Nile valley from the desert plains on each side of it, raising lofty clouds of fine sand and causing great annoyance, until the rising of the river again comes to bless the land. It rains but rarely, except near the seashore. At Memphis the rain falls perhaps three or four times in the course of a year, and in Upper Egypt only once or twice, if at all; showers of hail sometimes reach the borders of Egypt, but the formation of ice is very uncommon. Earthquakes are occasionally felt and thunder and lightning are neither frequent nor violent. Egypt is not remarkably healthy, especially in the delta, where ophthalmia, diarrhoea, dysentery and boils are somewhat prevalent. But many invalids now winter in Egypt, especially in the neighborhood of Cairo, or higher up the river, where the air is dry and pure.

The Nile, Irrigation and Agriculture. The great historic river Nile, Greek Neilos; Latin Nilus; Hebrew Yeor or Shihor; Arabic EnNeel (black), is 3,400 miles in length, the longest in Africa and one of the great rivers of the world. It divides at lat. 30° 15', just below Cairo, into two main streams, the one entering the sea by the Rosetta mouth on the west, the other by the Damietta mouth on the east. These two streams carry the bulk of the Nile water to the Mediterranean and enclose a large portion of the territory known as the delta, from its resemblance to the Greek letter A and which owes its existence to the deposits of alluvial matter brought down by the stream. The most remarkable phenomenon connected with the Nile is its annual regular increase, arising from the periodical rains which fall within the equatorial regions and the Abyssinian Mountains. As rain rarely falls in Egypt, the prosperity of the country entirely depends on this overflowing of the river. On the subsiding of the water the land is found to be covered with a brown slimy deposit, which so enriches the soil that with a sufficient inundation, it produces twq crops a year, while beyond the limits of the inundation there is no cultivation. The Nile begins to rise about the middle of June and continues to increase until about the end of September, overflowing the lowlands along its course, the water being conveyed to the fields by artificial courses where natural channels fail. After remaining stationary for a short time, the river rises again but subsequently begins to subside, showing a markedly lower level in

January, February and March and reaching its lowest in April, May and early June. The overflow water is now to a great extent managed artificially by means of an extensive system of reservoirs and canals, so that after the river subsides it may be used as required. A certain proportion of the fields, after receiving the overflow and being sown, can ripen the crop without further moisture; but many others always require artificial irrigation. Steam pumps are now largely used in northern Egypt. Latterly the government has tried to make the farmers less and less directly dependent on the inundation, and the great barrage of the Nile below Cairo, the largest weir in the world, is one means to this end, the great dam or barrage at Assouan being another.

The native methods of raising water for irrigation are chiefly by the sakich, or water wheel, and the shadouf. The first consists of a horizontal wheel turned by one or two oxen, which sets in motion a vertical wheel, around which are hung a number of earthen jars, this wheel being sunk into a reservoir connected with the river. The jars thus scoop up the water and bring it to a trough on a level with the top. Into this trough each jar empties itself in succession and the water is conducted by an inclined channel into the cultivated ground adjoining, which may have been previously divided into compartments of 1 or 2 yards square by raising the mold into walls or ridges of 5 or 6 inches in height. Into these compartments the cultivator forms an entrance for the water by depressing a little space in the ridge or wall with the sole of his foot; and this overlooking of the channels of irrigation and adjustment of the openings from one compartment to the other with the foot is continued till the cultvator is assured by the growth of the plants that each compartment is daily and duly sup-. plied with its proper quantity of water, second means of raising water, namely, the shádouf, consists of a leather bucket slung at one end of a pole which has a weight at the other and sways up and down on a vertical support, a contrivance by which the cultivator is enabled to scoop up the water considerably below his feet and raise it with comparative ease to the mouth of a channel on a level with his breast. The latter mode of raising water is of great antiquity and is depicted on the walls of the ancient tombs of Egypt and also in the sculptures of Nineveh. A sufficient rise of the river (the rise varies at differcnt points) is essential to secure the prosperity of the country; and as the water subsides, the chaplet of buckets on the sakieh is lengthened, or several shádoufs, rising one above the other on the river bank, are required. Should the Nile rise above the requisite height it may do great damage; on the other hand if it should not attain the ordinary height, there is a deficiency of crops; but with rare exceptions, the inundations are regular and nearly uniform. See DELTA; IRRIGATION.

The

The Nile Barrage.- One of the greatest wonders of modern times, rivaling the Pyramids of the ancients, is the Nile Barrage. Thanks to Lord Cromer and Lord Kitchener, the stupendous work at Assouan and Assiut of taming the Nile, is an accomplished fact. Egypt is no more subject to the caprices of the Nile. The precious fertilizing fluid coming down from