WITHOUT troubling the public with a description of that portion
of the Nile to the north of the first cataract, or with a
detailed account of the Egyptian ruins, that have been visited by
a thousand tourists, I will commence by a few extracts from my
journal, written at the close of the boat voyage from Cairo :--

"May 8, 1861.--No air. The thermometer 104 degrees Fahr.; a
stifling heat. Becalmed, we have been lying the entire day below
the ruins of Philae. These are the most imposing monuments of the
Nile, owing to their peculiar situation upon a rocky island that
commands the passage of the river above the cataract. The banks
of the stream are here hemmed in by ranges of hills from 100 to
250 feet high; these are entirely destitute of soil, being
composed of enormous masses of red granite, piled block upon
block, the rude masonry of Nature that has walled in the river.
The hollows between the hills are choked with a yellow sand,
which, drifted by the wind, has, in many instances, completely
filled the narrow valleys. Upon either side of the Nile are
vestiges of ancient forts. The land appears as though it bore the
curse of Heaven; misery, barrenness, and the heat of a furnace
are its features. The glowing rocks, devoid of a trace of
vegetation, reflect the sun with an intensity that must be felt
to be understood. The miserable people who dwell in villages upon
the river's banks snatch every sandbank from the retiring stream,
and immediately plant their scanty garden with melons, gourds,
lentils, &c. this being their only resource for cultivation. Not
an inch of available soil is lost; but day by day, as the river
decreases, fresh rows of vegetables are sown upon the
newly-acquired land. At Assouan, the sandbanks are purely sand