AN UNEXPECTED VISIT. 1*77 surrounded by hundreds of black peaks. Here I had an unexpected visit. I was sitting in my tent, about eight o'clock, when I heard the tramp of dromedaries outside, and a strange voice saying : ana waited Ingleez (I am an Englishman). It proved to be Capt. Peel, of the British Navy, (son of the late Sir Robert Peel), who was returning from a journey to Khartoum and Kordofan. He was attended by a single guide, and carried only a water-skin and a basket of bread. He had travelled nearly day and night since leaving Berber, and would finish the journey from that place to Korosko — a distance of four hundred miles — in seven days. He spent an hour with me, and then pushed onward through " The Grates " towards the Nile. It had been his intention to penetrate into Bar-Fur, a country yet unvisited by any European, but on reaching Obeid, the Capital of Kordofan, his companion, a Syrian Arab, fell sick, arid he was himself attacked with the ague This decided him to return, and he had left his baggage and servants to follow, and was making for England with all speed.

He was provided with all the necessary instruments to make his travel useful in a scientific point of view, and the failure of his plans is much to be regretted. I was afterwards informed by M. Linant that he met Capt. Peel on the following day, and supplied him with water enough to reach the Nile.

Towards noon, on the third day, we passed the last of the " Gates," and entered the Bahr bela Ma (River without Water), a broad plain of burning yellow sand. The gateway is very imposing, especially on the eastern side, where it is broken by a valley or gorge of Tartarean blackness. As we passed the last peak, my guide, who had ridden in advance, dismounted beside what seemed to be a collection of graves —