WHITE ANTS.

During their absence we had not passed a very lively time : we had shot a few doves, and I obtained a marabou stork, the first seen. A more ugly, ungainly bird does not exist, and he is a regular scavenger ; but the beautiful white feathers that grow underneath the tail-coverts are much prized by ladies.

Marabous must be endowed with marvellous digestive powers. An Englishman told me, that when he was shooting in the Soudan he shot a lion, and soon afterwards missed his claws. He suspected some marabous that had been lurking about, to be the thieves ; and, on shooting and dissecting two or three, found most of his lion's claws in their stomachs.

We saw a good deal of a very intelligent Greek, named Mosconas, and his son, the latter suffering greatly from rheumatism. They were endeavouring to sink some wells between Cassala and the Atbara, and also between that river and Gedariff, a town to the south-west, in the midst of a very rich district where a great deal of dJiurra as well as tobacco is grown. Although they had gone to a great depth, they had not succeeded in reaching water ; and they felt that success was very doubtful.

Lort Phillips made a cross of mimosa-wood, which is very hard, for Jules' grave, to remain until he could send a stone out from Egypt. All wood perishes after a short time, in consequence of the white ants, which are nowhere more persistent than at Cassala. We had met with them on the road, but to no great extent, and had been able to regard them more in the light of entomological curiosities than as plagues : here, however, we had to be very careful not to leave on the ground, for any length of time, anything that could be injured by their attacks. Canvass sacks, or such things as socks, they would eat through in one night, or damage so much that holes would very soon appear in them ; they were particularly