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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1879)
April, 1879. THE WEST SHORE. 101 been winding through the streets and washing of iu head-waters during the 1 bearing trees planted where mice dread avenues of dead cities, once renowned lapse of many centuries. Hut wc arc desolation reigned supreme, and water, for their schools of philosophy and I exceeding our limits; a few reflections J the Bedouin's "gift of Uod," was DCllCS-ieillCh, uranium panning illio oil U1C ClUlllgCS linn MI, 11 1,1 Ulin 1 hinn, 11 n iv vaihiu ill mv nsm mosaics which challenge the approach of modern skill, and elegant forms of architecture whose fragments alone constitute the finest models of the world I dition of Egypt to-day. Yea, like curious visitors from a new-created icalm, we have been invading the solemn stillness of dead cities once resonant with thousands of happy voices now hushed forever, and radiant with Hashing eyes long since closed in the dreamless sleep that knows no waking. It has hcen ingeniously and con clusively shown by geologists that the accretions of soil left by the waters of the Nile, in lower Kgypt, dining the annual inundations, amount to a little more than a foot in a bundled years. Hence, assum ing that the final subjugation of Egypt and the overthrow of the l'haraonic dynasty took place twelve hundred years before the Christian era, it would seem that an accumula tion of at least thirty feet of deposi ted soil now covers the ancient val ley of the Nile. Consequently, many arclifflologihU and learned travelers have concluded that by far the great er, and perhaps richer portion of Egyptian ruins proper, still lie bu ried under this soil-growth of ages. Tht stratum of precipitated sedi ment rapidly decreases in depth, of course, as we ascend the river, and at a moderate distance up the valley, it would probably not exceed :i foot in thickness. Much lighl might doubtless be thrown upon early Jew ish history by an organicd effort In ward discovering and exhuming the remains of ancient handiwork in this, the ri.lu-l field lor archaeolog ical research in the whole of the Nile country. The majority of modem travelers agieu that the most fitiit ful results of n systematic excavation would be had at or near the little village of Afaturea, now generally considered to lie the true site of the magnificent Temple of the Sun, so glowingly descrilied by early writers. This village, which consists only of a few miserable Arab huts, is situated im mediately upon the bank of the Nile, a mile or so mIkvc the sculptured pillar ulrcady dcscrilicd. The material to be removed would lie nothing more than the accumulated accretions brought down by the river from the hillside land of the world's childhood, and we must close. The Sue canal is working skins transported by the hardy camel. e believe it is yet in the power ol the wonders in the political and social con- religion and science of the enlightened . . . -n m. 1 .... IJ I .LI- - .- 1 I I he rinlc -.on 01 uie worm to reoeem ims kuickcu lauo from the curse of Mohammedan su perstition, and bring it back a long way towards its former paradisiacal loveliness. Once the acknowledged granary of the world, its annually inundated bottom lands aie yet capable of be ing reclaimed and made subservient to the comfort ami luxury of a dense population of intelligent people. The artificial planting of fruit and forest trees throughout the whole extent of the valle) of the Nile is clearly a possibility, and, we hclicu , the setpiel would show it to lie a glorioDI MICCMti od giant that the prctenl Kntafy may sec this grand and noble enterprise hniicfully In augurated. Oiiikni. A TABU Hlinoliitf Hi" sim.mil "t istulsll s Walla t.H., WMliiuytoii Tsritliirjr, tltusM in til ili'K 5 mill, ft ., IM 41 11 iiiiii .'.I wwt n( WhIiIiikIuh, lur tn nil, imIiiik Kali. M, IS7V. ... . . - : a: ,- -":,t w-j4-U ?7 7 77 !7I Mn. Mus.n I M.rcl. ...I I 47 N I II A.,.,l ... .11 Jft I Ml W m !w 1 Ki-" 72, ,., iWm iltv 1 Ail (Ml S.- (.1 . . . II. 1 Vol . Ikiv .I.jr . i Iu. I In. I Is I la. I la. 1 .71 4 4ft' I M I0 l 1 It I 1; M un .1 H l.l'J .61 U 1 nt 4?' It M utl IV, MI4II W II .Ml, I I! I I' i(M ,, j ir. 1 si. 4 1.' 1 ,;w M UII.IMI in 7I.M' 1 , . 1 li .M a I iJ i 44 1 wa .;a 771 1 4f. jwi iw si .111 In I HA ym t as 1 .'. .4 .40 .7 I 7 J.4J i 1 11. I 4U dim i. 1 htuiMT. w.n wii., 1 m w.ii weai DOM I 1 HINU if t 1 MUM Prom Mr. MMMdorflVrtth better, w 1,0 h 1., perhaps, mmiund more hrinlsllian any Otnil man in Oregon, wc learn thai the largest beail thai rtaaevet coma on. in nie obeeriretUn i, that of Capl. Marshall Hliun, .! Olvnipia. it take, a 7 bat I" in his head. There arc three genii, men in I'oitland who wear 7tf bals, tbiee V,, whilst 7 Hi a ""' tom' desert , lady - g. i amt-ct with mm, JJJgJZ the repre,e...tiM " 1 . ' f I L. to I m.-dr to ord, , . refinement, and, as a natural cons,- y- ; . ,hc lwiM,. paleofKicncetodomuelitowari s c- VT' U t.,ne in,0 g,c,.l A- sp:s- already lx:cn sunk awl groves of fruit-1 line. Sl SAXSAIl Fom a SiATOr. nv UMMBM