CHAPTER I.

IRRIGATION.

After a long ramble on a fine day in midsummer, Vin found himself, late in the afternoon, near the summit of one of the tallest peaks of Peavine Mountain. The beautiful valley of the Truckee, dotted with virgin pine, with ranch, orchard, vineyard and meadow, traversed by the lordly Truckee, intersected by irrigation ditches was spread out beneath him.

Irrigation is the Life of the arid States.

The material prosperity of all the nations that made antiquity illustrious was based upon artificial irrigation of a naturally arid soil. Nature furnished the sunshine, and man supplied the water.

All the nations? There was one important exception. Through the valley of Egypt flowed the great River Nile; its sources in regions for centuries wholly unknown; its course from South to North. Observing that the annual return of its flood-waters was always preceded by the appearance of a beautiful Star, which, about the time of the Summer Solstice, appeared in the heavens in the general direction of the source of the Nile, and seemingly warned the husbandmen of the coming inundation, the Star was likened to that animal which, by barking, gives warning of

danger; and the Star was soon styled Sirius, the Dog.

Long before the era of history, the annual inundations of that river had formed the alluvial lands of upper and lower Egypt, which they continued to raise higher and higher and to fertilize by their deposits. At first those inundations were calamities but, in the process of time, the ancient Egyptians by means of levees and drains, artificial reservoirs and lakes, stored the surplus waters for the purposes of irrigation and, from that time, the waters of the Nile became blessings which were looked for with joyful anticipation, as they had before been awaited with terror. "Upon the deposit left by the Sacred River, as it withdrew into its banks, the husbandman sowed his seed, and the rich soil and the genial sun assured an abundant harvest.” From Egypt, the science of irrigation was carried to the region of ancient Babylon and there, too, its beneficent uses were recognized and encouraged.

Assyria grew great because her people learned to apply water to desert land. The same was true of Greece and of Rome. Through the garden of Plato flowed a diverted stream of clear, cold, sparkling water from the Athenian hills. The Lombard kings, following the Roman practice, extended and encouraged irrigation in Italy. From Lombardy the art was extended to France. The Moors encouraged it in Spain, Sicily and in Algeria. In Persia, India, and China this form of

husbandry has been practised from time immemorial, and is still continued. The same was found to prevail in Mexico among the Azetecs, the Toltecs, the Vaquis, and other tribes at the time of the Spanish conquest, carried thither, no doubt, by those Phoenician voyagers who brought there their industries and art; and it has remained undisturbed in the jurisprudence of that country until now. It existed also in Peru. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, we read: "I did not repel or set back the waters; I did not turn aside the flowing of a canal. I did not soil the waters."

Thus we see that this is the oldest method of skilled husbandry, and probably a large number of the Human Race have ever depended upon artificial irrigation for their food products.

CHAPTER II.

WESTERN CIVILIZATION AROSE IN EGYPT.

The Greek historians regarded the Egyptians as the oldest race of mankind. Herodotus and Pathagoras were initiated into the Mysteries of the Egyptian Brotherhood; and from the information thus acquired, they made up their estimate of the antiquity of Egyptian civilization. According to their calculations, based upon records kept by the Egyptian Brotherhood, the accession of Menes, founder of Memphis and first mortal ruler of Egypt, antedates the year 12,000 B. C. Prior to the accession of Menes, Egypt was said to have been for thousands of years under the domination of several dynasties of gods: First, the Eight Gods; then, the Twelve Gods; then, Osiris, Typhon, and last of all, Horus, who immediately preceded Menes, the first mortal king. From the same sources, Plato compiled considerable information regarding the ancient continent and civilization of Atlantis, of which the Azores are supposed to be the only visible landmark.

It is assumed, therefore, to be the concensus of authority that western civilization arose in the Valley of the Nile. If there were no other evidence than that pertaining to the subject of irri

gation, Vin thought that conclusion would be irresistible.

The secluded position of the singularly fertile valley of the Nile enabled mankind to develop a civilization which far surpassed that of other primitive nations, and with which only that of far-off Babylonia, where somewhat similar local conditions obtained, could in any degree vie. The traditions of antiquity point to two cities as the fountains of Human Wisdom-Memphis, in Egypt; and Babylonia, of the Chaldees. In the Valley of the Nile were no frosts, no storms of rain, no snow. There were no forests. There, Nature perennially restored the soil with her own riches and yielded her abundance without much labor. There, the conditions for fixed and permanent abodes and agricultural pursuits were alone ideal. There, was found no place for the vocation of the hunter, the wild flight of the nomad, or the silent vigil of the herdsman. Long before the era of history, those ancient husbandmen laid the foundation of the future greatness of Egypt.

Details of the primitve period of Egyptian history are meagre. Races, like individuals, have but little recollection of their own infancy. Doubtless at a very remote period the aboriginal inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile were displaced by foreign invaders. Perhaps, nomads. from Asia; possibly, fugitives from Atlantis. Be that as it may, many centuries of development and growth, followed by conquest and invasion,