DISTANT VIEW OF TILE NILE. 419 and pottery. There is a churchyard near at hand, with tombstones which contain inscriptions both in Greek and Coptic.

"We rode slowly down the broad river-bed, which gradually widened, and after two or three hours saw far in advance a line of red, glowing sand-hills, which I knew could not be on the southern side of the Nile. Still we went on, under the clear, hot sky, the valley widening into a plain the while, and I sought anxiously for some sign that the weary Desert was crossed. Finally, I saw, above the endless clusters of thorns, a line of darker, richer green, far away in the burning distance, and knew it to be a grove of date-palms — the glorious signal of the Nile. This put new life into me, and thenceforth I felt the scorching heat no longer. To the north, beyond the palms, appeared an isolated mountain of singular form — the summit being flat and the sides almost perpendicular. It must be Djebel Berkel, I thought, and I told Mohammed so, but he said it was not. Just then, I saw an Arab herdsman among the thorns and called out to him to know the name of the mountain. " Djebel Berkel," said he. He then accosted Mohammed : " Where are you going ?" " To Merawe." " Are you the guide ? " he again inquired, bursting into a loud laugh.

" You are a fine guide; there is Merawe !" pointing in a direction very different from that we were going. This completed the old fellow's discomfiture. We were still five or six miles distant from the river and took a random path over the plain, in the direction indicated by the herdsman. The palms rose higher and showed a richer foliage ; mud walls appeared in their shade, and a tall minaret on the opposite bank of tha river pointed out the location of the town. I rode down out