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Countries of the World (Inhabitants Of the present)

inhabitants. Of the present population of Egypt the Moslems constitute about seveneights. Egypt has several dependencies, comprising Nubia, the (Egyptian) Soudan, Egyptian) Soudan , which includes Sennar, part of Dongola, Kordofan, Darfoor, Fertit, etc., and a region known as the Provinces of the Equator, which extends up the White Nile nearly to the equatorial lakes, and is held by military occupation. The ports along the African coast of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are held by Egypt.

COMMERCE. The commerce is large, and consists, in a prominent degree, of goods carried in transit. This is facilitated by an extensive railway system almost of export are entirely under the control of the government. The principal articles of export are cotton, sugar, ivory, wheat, oil seeds, dates, figs, and senna. Cotton goods, petroleum, timber, iron, and coal are the staple articles imported. In former years a very heavy transit trade covering articles exported from India and other Asiastic countries to Great Britain and Europe was carried on between Red Sea and the Mediterranean ports, but since the opening of the Suez Canal this has necessarily diminished. This noted canal has been of great advantage to the commerce of the world. It was opened for navigation in Nov. 1869. It starts from Port Said, 40 m. E. of the Damietta mouth of the Nile, and runs across the isthmus and through lakes Menzaleh, El Ballah, and Timsah, on the shores of which latter stands the new town of Ishmailia, and through the Bitter Lakes to Suez. The total length is 92 m. It is not wide enough for two vestwo vessels to pass or cross each other, but there are sidings where this may be done. Vessels drawing over 25 ft. of water have passed through. This canal cost $95,000,০০০.

Nearly 200,000 of the original 400,000 shares are owned by the British Government , the Khedive in 1875 being forced to sell them to aid in tiding over the financial diffifinancial difficulties into which his country had fallen. MANUFACTURES. - For several centuries the manufactures have been in a declining state. While Mehemet Ali endeavored to promote the manufacture of silk, cotton, and woolen goods, his son, Ibrahim Pasha, opposed to this policy, devoted himself to the development of the country's resources. The chief manufactures car- The chief manufactures carried on are the weaving of cotton, woolen, and linen fabrics, leather, coarse pottery , common glassware, and household goods in considerable variety. The government establishment turns out goods in great variety.