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NUBIAN CAMEL-DRIVER.

the kandjia was moored, we proceeded to the house of the governor, a Turk of gentlemanly appearance, and courteous manners, through whose interference, it was supposed, good dromedaries might be obtained. Affairs of this kind, however, are always tedious. The passage of an European traveller through the Batn el Hajjar to Dongola not occurring above once or twice in a century, the camel-driver knew not what terms to insist on. What an Arab, under similar circumstances, would have paid, was nothing to the purpose; we were strangers; and these barbarians, like the Swiss, appear to make it a point of honour to cheat foreigners. The chief of the camel-drivers, an old Nubian with a scanty beard, as meek looking as a Jew, stood before us, playing with his whip of hippopotamus hide, protesting, though the Turk admitted the sum was exorbitant, that he demanded no more for his beasts than a Mussulman would pay. Finding he obstinately adhered to his first proposition, we left him abruptly, and proceeding southward along the banks of the river, towards the cataract, came in sight of the rocky islands, between which the river precipitates itself; but the day drawing towards its close, we found it necessary to restrain our curiosity until the morrow. The wind continued boisterous and the weather cold throughout the night.

Monday, January 28th. Wady Halfa. CCCLIII. In the morning, as we were about to cross to the western bank, on our way to the cataract,

the old Nubian camel-driver came on board, but his terms being still unreasonable, we again failed to enter into any definitive arrangement. Landing at the foot of the rocks, near the tomb of Sheikh Abdulgadir, a celebrated Mohammedan saint, we directed our course towards the south, over an alternately sandy and stony tract, along the slope of the low chain of hills which here borders the stream. The rocky strata composing these hills present a very peculiar aspect, being nearly as white as chalk, and containing innumerable crystals of shining spar. The sand, disposed in beautiful slopes, extending from the rocks to the Nile, is of a rich deep yellow colour, glittering like gold in the sun. In our way we saw several gazelles, that having been drinking at the river, or feeding near its banks, were scared at our approach, and bounded with prodigious rapidity towards the desert, appearing but for a moment, before they were lost among the rocks.

CCCLIV. We had not proceeded far before the sound of the cataract was distinctly audible, which, in the silence of night, must be heard at a great distance. The wind blowing fiercely, and raising aloft, like mist, the fine sands of the desert, drifted them across the river, far into the eastern plain, where other sandy clouds were rolling rapidly along but they were thin and ill defined, nothing like those huge pillars, raised by the whirlwind, and beheld by Bruce, driven in endless files over that selfsame wilderness; the hope of beholding which had

chiefly tempted me into Nubia. But they seldom appear, except, perhaps, in one particular portion of the desert; though, from what I have myself witnessed, I am led to yield the fullest belief to the tra veller's sublime description.

CCCLV. In about two hours we arrived at the rock Abousir, an isolated hill about one hundred and fifty feet in height, beetling over the cataract. It is itself a striking object, and from its summit the view comprehends the whole extent of the falls. Looking towards the south, we behold the Nile, its channel being about a mile in breadth, emerging from among a chaos of rocks, as if it here sprung in all its grandeur from the earth. Flowing northward, between innumerable islands of green porphyry piled into the most fantastic forms, it at length arrives at the point where the water precipitates itself with prodigious noise and velocity, over an abrupt descent in its bed, observing no certain direction, dashed now towards one side, now towards the other, by opposing rocks, vexed with whirlpools, and broken into eddies. In many parts it seems to be bursting through some enormous sluice, while fall beyond fall, covered with foam, and hurling aloft clouds of spray, present themselves in magnificent succession to the eye. Almost in the midst of these, protected by some jutting promontory, we discover smooth expanses of water, unruffled as a summer lake, affording a beautiful contrast with the savage uproar of the cataracts. Meanwhile, the noise of the dashing

VIEW OF THE CATARACTS.

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water is so loud that the whole region round appears to be shaken by continual thunder, the ears being incessantly filled with this sound, which mingles itself with the conception of what is beheld, and powerfully influences the decision of the judgment. But the principal charm of the landscape consists neither in the savage rocks, nor in the eternal dashing and roar of the waters; but in that utter solitude, sterility, desolation, which everywhere prevail, and suggest the idea that in all that vast region you alone are breathing the breath of life. This, at least, was the idea which rushed upon my mind, as I looked towards the north and towards the south, towards the east and towards the west, and, except my own companions, beheld no living thing, no habitation or trace of mankind, -the distant village of Wady Halfa being hidden by date trees, — and heard no sound but the voice of the river, bursting in monotonous cadence on the ear. Whatever was the cause, I have seldom experienced, in the presence of mere brute matter, emotions more powerful than those I experienced on the rock Abousir. Towards the south, beyond the ast extent of the barren desert, were the kingdoms of Dongola, and Sennaar, and Abyssinia, and the sources of the White River, upon which, circumstances I could in no degree control, compelled me to turn my back. I had now reached the most southern point I was to attain, and could no farther pursue the course of that mighty river which I had followed with increasing interest for more than a thousand miles. Comparatively a few weeks more would have

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carried me to its source, and those sunny regions where the rigours of winter are entirely unknown. I regretted to take my farewell of the south, but curbed the vain longing that would have carried me, with the White River, into unknown countries, reserved for the discovery of others more fortunate than I. Next moment, the recollection of Europe, with those whom it contained, turned my thoughts into a different channel, and caused me to look forward with unaccountable pleasure to the descent of the Nile.

Piles of

CCCLVI. Nevertheless, we wandered about for several hours among the rocks of the cataract, proceeding southward along the edge of the stream. It was a truly wild and extraordinary scene. dark green or black rocks, smooth, shining, and slippery, over which it was exceedingly toilsome to climb, alternating with small hollows or smooth patches of sand, invisible at a distance, where a few bushes were nourished by the moisture oozing in through the rocks, in many places running in long jetties into the river. One of these little promontories leads out to the brink of the principal fall, and from its extremity, where we sat to view the prospect, we could have put our feet into the whirlpools. In the little sandy hollows above described, we everywhere observed the fresh tracks of the gazelles, which would seem to come hither from the desert in troops, to drink and crop the few green herbs found among the rocks, unscared by the noise of the cataract. Here our little party separated, each wandering as his fancy led him.