Though the sun was not very high, it was sufficiently warm when we
started, and we had good reason for anticipating a broiling ride. At
this point there is not an atom of shade, not the semblance of a tree
between the river and the stony desert. All the palm-groves cluster
round the town of Edfou and the villages north and south. We were soon
upon the dusty dike, which, as we proceeded, seemed to lift us higher
and higher above the level plain, half bright-green, half sheeted with
water, that lay in death-like repose, and reflected the sun's rays like
a burnished mirror. It soon appeared that our anticipations of good
sport were not to be disappointed: on all sides, as far as the eye could
reach, as well as near at hand in the pools at the base of the _gisr_ or
dike, appeared innumerable birds, principally aquatic. Large flocks of
paddy-birds, often called the white ibis, speckled the green of the
fields; enormous pelicans stood hanging their enormous beaks, as if in
drowsy contemplation, over distant pools; storks and herons, single, or
arranged, as it were, in military array, accompanied them; and
prodigious masses of white birds glittered in the sun on the verge of
the marshy plain. Then the water was alive with cormorants, geese,
ducks, divers, teal, coot, that swam about in amazing numbers, or,
startled at the slightest noise, flew generally at a cautious distance
overhead. Birds of prey were of course likewise numerous--hawks, kites,
vultures; and whole flights of large, black crows went by now and then,
cawing vociferously. We could see also prodigious numbers of the
_ghatta_ or red-legged partridge flying northward or settling on the
edge of the desert. It seemed as though a grand parliament of the
feathered creation were about to be held.

When we reached the desert we found a small Coptic convent standing
amidst the ruins of a much larger one near the head of the _gisr_. We
visited it in the course of the morning, and were civilly received and