banks the high hills rise mysteriously purple against the sunrise, or
catch the first gleam of gold on their rugged bluffs.

As the sun mounts higher a delicate pink tinge suffuses all, and the
hanging mists are dispersed by the growing heat to form little flecks
of white which float in the deep blue of the sky above you. Meanwhile
the life of the river and the fields has recommenced, and the banks
again become animated, and innumerable Nile boats dot the surface of
the stream.

At midday the landscape is enveloped in a white heat, while the bluffs
and buttresses of the rocks cast deep purple shadows on the sweeping
sand-drifts which lie against their base. It is a drowsy effect of
silver and grey, when Nature seems asleep and man and beast alike are
inclined to slumber.

Towards evening, glorified by the warm lights, how rich in colour the
scenery becomes! The western banks, crowned by dense masses of
foliage, whose green appears almost black against the sunset, are
reflected in the water below, its dark surface broken by an
occasional ripple and little masses of foam which have drifted down
from the cataract hundreds of miles away. Beyond the belt of trees the
minarets of some distant village are clear cut against the sky, for
the air is so pure that distance seems to be annihilated. Looking
east, the bold cliffs face the full glory of the sunset, and display a
wonderful transformation of colour, as the white or biscuit-coloured
rocks reflect the slowly changing colour of the light. They gradually
become enveloped in a ruddy glow, in which the shadows of projections
appear an aerial blue, and seem to melt imperceptibly into the glowing
sky above them. Gradually a pearly shadow creeps along the base of the