seems to hover for a moment over the great fall;— then, down she goes, as if performing a summerset ; and we emerge about a hundred yards off from rock, and rapid, and exploit, which this last descent certainly deserves the name of.

We were now on the Egyptian Nile once more; we discharged our Raises, who did not even ask for backsheesh, and went away looking as cheerful as their careworn countenances would permit; and we also dismissed our drunken pilot, but in a very different temper.

Our anxiety for English letters and news acquired force, like gravitation, as we descended the river; and we only stopped at Assouan long enough to take in necessary stores, such as charcoal, flour, &c. I may mention here, for the information of travellers, that during the first month of our voyage we had used only the bread of the country, which was often very indifferent; but, on entering Nubia, we could no longer obtain even this, and Mahmoud thenceforth made Arab cakes for us of flour and water, which he baked upon a flat piece of iron; this we found so

excellent and wholesome, that we used nothing else until we reached Cairo. Our crew also laid in little stores of merchandize, for presents or for profit, of the Nubian articles most prized in Egypt. The premiums and prizes for work which we had given them from time to time enabled them to do this; and our boat became heavily laden with the dates of the Ibreehmee and other luxuries.

We found a steamer belonging to the Pasha at Assouan, which he had sent so far with Prince Albert of Prussia, who was now visiting Nubia, and we had here the luxury of reading some newspapers two months old, which were to us as precious as when they lie on our breakfast-tables in London, still reeking from the press, and containing all the news which only started into existence a few hours before.

Bacheet and another inhabitant of these parts had obtained leave of absence from Philo, and we now set forward on our Egyptian voyage with a diminished crew. We stopped about midnight to take in the absent men under a grove of the best date-trees in Egypt. It was bright moonlight, and we found our excellent pilot waiting for us, surrounded by his family. It was interesting to observe the affectionate partings of these poor people, and the old father held up his hands to bless his son, remaining in that attitude till our boat glided out of sight. We offered fifty piastres to the crew if they took us to Esneh by the following evening, and they accomplished the undertaking, having been thirty hours at the oars without a moment's respite, except for meals, and while we were visiting Koum Ombos and the quarries of Hadjar Silsili.

The former is a noble relic of other times, and has still visible the tank wherein the sacred crocodile bathed, and the brick terrace on which he took his daily promenade. These Ombites were worshippers of this fishy beast; and a record survives of one of them, who was taken prisoner by the crocodile-haters of Dendera, and by them handed over, in a spirit of controversial irony, to his gods. It is unnecessary to add that these carnivorous deities conferred immediate immortality on their luckless worshipper. The quarries of Hadjar Silsili afforded material for many of the cities along the Nile, and they now present an extraordinary appearance; hollowed out of the solid rock, there are squares as large as that of St. James's; streets as large as Pall Mall; and lanes and alleys without number; in short, you have here all the negative features of a town, if I may so speak; i.e., if a town be considered as a cameo, these quarries are one vast intaglio.

One of our chameleons died here of cold, the thermometer having fallen to 85° in the shade; and his companion looked as if we were going too far with the experiment, as to whether they feed on air. It was not for want of food, however; for our cabin all day was in a haze of flies, and at night they lay in thick, black masses along all the cornices, encrusting them like moss. We had tried many devices to banish this plague by poison and smothering, but all the arts of a Brinvilliers would not induce them to touch the former, and they were too much accustomed to heat and stench to mind the latter. At length we circumvented them by a very simple means. As soon as they were settled for the night, a pan of charcoal was slowly moved round

beneath them, till, stupefied by the fumes of carbonic gas, they yielded up their lives to science, and fell, in a hissing hail, upon the burning coals. This sounds cruel, but we calculated on their being suffocated previously to their being grilled; aud the torments that they made us suffer during the day rendered us, I fear, somewhat indifferent to their feelings at night.

We found, on awaking the day after leaving Assouan, that we had passed Edfou in the night-time, and (shall I confess it?) we were rather glad than otherwise. By this time, we had been so be-templed and be-ruined, that we looked on a city of the Pharaohs with as much indifference as on a club-house in Pall Mall, and read the glowing eulogies of antiquaries as unmovedly as if they were puffs of some "noble residence" by George Robins. This is a bold, perhaps a rash, confession: but, as these volumes are a faithful record of impressions, I give them as they come, without selecting only the romantic, or even the creditable.1

On our arrival at Esneh, we found it in the possession of a regiment of ferocious Arnaouts, who carry terror and oppression wherever they appear. These soldiers, having done their work in Syria, proved rather too troublesome even for the Pasha's authority, and were now under orders for the interior, with the intention that they should never return: they knew that they were doomed men, and this consciousness. increased their habitual ferocity. When we approached the town, we found a fleet of candjiahs moored to the shore, and numbers of the soldiery amusing them

1 We passed Eilethyas by accident: it is one of the most interesting places on the river. See Egyptiaca, p. 92.