88 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

Eighty feet above my head towered an overhanging precipice of black rock ; behind me rose another of the same height ; at the foot of the one in front Liy a beautiful, large, ice-green pool, deepening into black as I looked into its transparent depths. Scarlet dragon-flies flitted about in the shade ; rocks covered with dark-green weed looked out of the water ; the air was cool almost to coldness. It was like being dropped into a fairy grotto, at least so it seemed to me after grilling for days in the sun.

I drank as much of the water as I could conveniently hold, filled my water-bottle as a specimen for the thirsty souls below, and went to the lower end of this beautiful pool, where a similar channel connected it with the lowest of all. I climbed into it, and found myself overlooking the large pool about twelve feet below, where rows of horses and camels were drinking at the far end. As this pool was notoriously only fit for animals, stray Arabs watering their flocks and camels there, and washing their beastly selves in it, my first thought was naturally how the cool water of the upper pools was to be