About two hundred yards from this is the island at the head of which, in an edifice erected for it, is situated the celebrated Nilometer, or graduated column, for measuring the depth of the river, and from which report is made when the river has attained an elevation sufficient to ensure a favorable season. When this is done, the banks which restrain the water from flowing into the canal leading to Cairo, are cut down, the water flows in, floods the squares of the city, and then ensues a season of hilarity and merry-making throughout the whole city.
The island contains about seven or eight acres, and, until lately, presented nothing remarkable; but it is now a very fascinating spot. About four years since, Mohammed Ali employed an English horticulturist, Mr. Trail, to put it in order. He built a stone wall around it, reaching from below low watermark, to a height above the greatest elevation of the floods, and had machinery constructed for irrigating it by means of canals, at all seasons of the year. It is laid out partly in regular plots, but chiefly in the English garden style, with winding walks, serpentine streams, lakes, grottoes, rustic bridges, glades, and lawns; and, what in Egypt is rather curious, in one place is ornamented with _artificial_ ruins of temples and similar objects. The size of the trees here are a proof of the astonishing fecundity of the soil when irrigation is well supplied; for, although the time has been so short, the ground is covered with trees thirty and forty feet in height; the shrubbery is luxuriant, and embosoms many delicious retreats from the sultry sun. They have collected here all the plants natural to the country, together with many of foreign origin. Egypt, however, does not produce a great variety of flowers or useful shrubs. Mr. Trail has a house at one side of the garden, in which we were hospitably entertained.
On returning to the palace some of our party returned home, while the rest of us proceeded to visit the stables of Ibrahim Pasha. This warrior chief is a great lover of horses; and in the course of his expeditions into Syria and Arabia, has had the best opportunities of making a collection; and he appears to have profited by them.