of black rock, sprinkled through it for about three miles, and nowhere leaving the channel wider than from twenty to thirty yards, that the water is necessarily impeded, and descends with but little force. The flat shores, almost level with the river, offer no object of interest; and memory reverts with more pleasure to the romantic heights and rushing waters of the first Cataract.

We have now reached the first stage of our journey, and have accomplished the passage from Cairo in thirty-six days, which is about the usual time. The boats, with a fairer allowance of wind, would have done it in less, having throughout sailed in the most creditable manner; but we have had many calms, and the process of tracking is very slow and tedious. Of the winds on the Nile it is impossible to speak in anything but the most severe terms. They are of the

most variable nature, and more fickle than Fortune. It is impossible to count on a breeze for a single day.

We had every reason to be satisfied with the boats, though 'The Fanny,' spite of the precautions of the Reis, was, at starting, somewhat infested with rats. But the strong remedy of a cat obviated this inconvenience, and we had no further ground for complaint.

The two crews I cannot commend too highly. For Arabs, they worked uncommonly well, and were exceedingly willing. The plenary power of the Reis, as administrator and disciplinarian, were exercised very seldom, when one or two of the men received a box on the ear, in the heat of argument or remonstrance; and once a sailor was bastinadoed for being tipsy.

This was

but a lame affair, the Reis being, in

fact, very reluctant to administer the punishment at all; however, as he had sworn to do so, he made the man lie down, and receive a dozen over his coat, which, being of no common thickness, effectually protected his skin.

CHAPTER XVI.

Retrospect.

BEFORE I proceed to describe our journey through the desert, it may be as well to take a glance at the country we have passed, and look once more at its people.

The Egyptian Fellah, who forms the staple of the population, rarely exceeds the middle stature. His head, and the whole of his face is generally shaved; of course leaving him neither moustache nor beard. He is

not industrious; nature has not given him much to do, and he has scarcely energy to do that.

The land will annually produce, at least four times as much as is required for the subsistence of the people. With a rude instrument, not unlike the pointed stick with which cabbages and lettuces are planted in England, he bores a hole in the mud, on the islands left by the receding river, and the beans or lentil-seeds, which are dropped into it, will become ready for gathering without further attention. More labour is necessary to make the land, not immediately on the banks of the river, produce its wonted harvest, and shadoofs, so often spoken of in these pages, are requisite for its irrigation.

This is managed in the following way: the ground is parcelled out in beds about