400 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

boulders of granite, hurled and heaped together in the same chaotic manner as is exhibited in the rocks between Assouan and Phihe. After passing the range, a wide plain again opened before us,, the course of the Nile marked in its centre by the darker hue of the nebbuks and sycamores, rising above the long gray belts of thorn-trees. The mountains which inclose the fallen temples of Mesowurat and Naga appeared far to the east. The banks of the river here are better cultivated than further up the stream. The wheat, which was just sprouting, during my upward journey, was now two feet high, and rolled before the wind in waves of dark, intense, burning green.

The brilliancy of color in these mid- African landscapes is truly astonishing.

The north-wind, which blew the sand furiously in our faces during the first three days of the journey, ceased at this point, and the weather became once more intensely hot. The first two or three hours of the morning were, nevertheless, delicious. The temperature was mild, and there was a June-like breeze which bore far and wide the delicate odor of the mimosa blossoms. The trees were large and thick, as on the White Nile, forming long, orchard-like belts between the grain-fields and the thorny clumps of the Desert. The flocks of black goats which the natives breed, were scattered among these trees, and numbers of the animals stood perfectly upright on their hind legs, as they nibbled off the ends of the higher branches.

On the morning after leaving Akaba (Jerri, I had two altercations with my men. Mohammed had left Khartoum without a camel, evidently for the purpose of saving money.

In a day or two, however, he limped so much that I put him