ABU FATMEH. 291 the miniature rapids which appeared now and then.

Especially irritating was it, on taking a shot at one of two channels, to find your whaler grounding on the sand and rocks in the wrong one. With wind and current dead against you it required a good deal of hard pulling to get back and turn into the right one. The Nile was very low, and with sandbanks and islands appearing in mid-stream, it was a toss-up as to which channel between them was shallow and which deep. Luckily no serious mishaps occurred, and our fleet arrived at Abu Fatmeh Camp .about midday.

Somehow the wind did not seem to act on shore, for it was frightfully hot directly we landed. We were stowed away in straw " rest-huts " till the evening, when we were to begin our march, and the temperature was like a furnace. It was higher than we had ever had before 122 degrees in the shade. Glaring hot rocks and no trees to speak of were the specialties of the place, and we thanked our stars we were to be off the same day.

Just below Abu Fatmeh was the cataract of u 2