Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/550

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EGGLESTON 478 EGYPT Schoolboy"; "Queer Stories for Boys and Girl?"; "Schoolmasters' Stories"; "Mr. Blake's Walking-Stick" ; "Duf- fels"; "School History of the United States"; "Household History of the United States"; "First Book in American History"; "The Beginners of a Nation," the first volume of a "History of Life in the United States" ; etc. He died in 1902. EGGLESTON, GEORGE GARY, an American author; brother of Edward; born in Vevay, Ind., Nov. 26, 1839. He has long been connected in an editorial capacity with one or another New York newspaper, including the "World," the "Evening Post," and the "Commercial Advertiser." A few of his many books are: A Man of Honor"; "A Rebel's Rec- ollections"; "Red Eagle"; "Juggernaut" (with Dolores Marbourg) ; and for young people: "How to Educate Your- self"; "How to Make a Living"; Our First Century" (1905); "Recollections of a Varied Life" (1910). He died in 1911. EGMONT, POUT, the principal harbor of the Falkland Isles, on the N. coast of the more W. of the principal two islands of the group, its seaward barriers be- ing the islets of Keppel and Saunders. EGYPT, a country in the N. E. of Africa, extending from the Mediterran- ean to the first cataract of the Nile at Assuan, from 24° 6' to 31° 36' N. lat. Area, exclusive of the Sudan, 350,000 square miles. Population (1917) 12,- 750,918, exclusive of nomad Bedouins. Capital, Cairo; pop. (1917) 790,939. Geologically and ethnologically, it is confined to the bed of the flooded Nile and occupies little more than 11,000 square miles. The Nile, after breaking through the rocky barrier at Assuan, pursues a N. course, varied only by one considerable bend near Thebes, till, a few miles N. of Cairo, it divides into two main streams, terminating in the Rosetta and Damietta mouths, through which, after a course of 3,300 miles, it pours during "high Nile," about 700,- 000,000,000 cubic meters daily into the Mediterranean Sea. The other five mouths which existed in antiquity, have silted up; the triangular district in- closed by them, supposed by the ancients to have been recovered from the sea, formed the delta, now called Lower Egypt. Climate. — The climate is remarkably mild, especially S. of the desert. The temperature in winter in the shade averages 50° to 60° F., and in the heat of summer 90° to 100° in Lower Egypt, 10° higher in the upper valley. From June till February cool N. winds prevail, then till June comes a period of E. or hot S. sandwinds, called the Khamasin or "Fifties" (blowing 50 days). The most remarkable phenomena is the reg- ular increase of the Nile, fed by the fall of the tropical rains. The state of the Nile marks the season more accurately than the variation of temperature. Ex- cept in the dry air of the valley and desert, Egypt is not remarkably healthy; because of the occasional visi- tations of plague and cholera, ophthal- mia, diarrhoea, dysentery, and boils. Geology. — Egypt is separated from Nubia by a low hilly region about 50 miles broad from N. to S. and composed A DAHABEAH OF THE NILE, EGYPT of granitic rocks. The same crystalline rocks extend up the shore of the Red Sea to near the opening of the Gulf of Suez, stretching inland for fully 30 miles. The scenery in this district is wild and rude. The granitic region ter- minates at Assuan, the ancient Syene, whence most of the materials for the colossal monuments of Egypt were pro- cured. The Arabian and Libyan ranges, on the right and left of the river, are alike composed of cretaceous strata, the predominant rock being sand- stone, which is durable and easily worked. Natural History.— The signal peculi- arity of the vegetation of the Nile Val-