roads turns into the Desert. We marched from the middle of the afternoon
till an hour after midnight, when we halted to sleep. The road for this
day was evidently the dry bed of an arm of the Nile, which, during the
inundation, is full of water. Even at this season the doum tree and the
acacia, which grew on its borders, were green, and coarse long grass was
abundant. At sunrise of the sixth day of the moon we again mounted,
and set forward in a direction nearly East. Our way lay over low
rocky hills, gravelly or sandy plains, and sometimes through valleys
containing plenty of coarse grass and acacia trees; but no water is
to be found above ground at this season, though it probably might be
obtained by sinking wells in some of these valleys. We halted at noon,
and in two hours after again mounted, and marched till midnight. Our
road lay through a country resembling that we had passed the day before.
On the morrow morning, a little after day-light, we proceeded on our
journey, and at noon halted at the only well of water we found on our
route. It lies near two high hills of black granite. The water was
yellow and dirty, and was almost rejected by the thirsty camels. By the
middle of the afternoon we were again on horseback, and marched till
midnight, when some of the camels dropping and dying, and others giving
out, the Selictar found himself obliged to order a halt for the rest of
the night. It was his intention to have marched till morning, by which
time our guides told us that we should arrive at the river. We threw
ourselves on the ground to sleep a few hours, but by sunrise we were
called to mount and away. We proceeded till about noon, when we came
in view of the beneficent river, whose beauty and value cannot be duly
appreciated by any who have not voyaged in the deserts through which it
holds its course. It was on the eighth of the moon when we arrived on
its borders. I had expected that our toilsome forced march would end
here, and had promised myself some repose, which I greatly needed, as
I had suffered much from the heat of the sun, which had burned the skin