ABU SIMBEl.

at the foot of the hill in which Rameses II. dug out his temple ; this hill is nearly one hundred feet high, but it is hard to realize this fact from the river. Rameses set up these statues to remind the Nubians and the "Nine Nations "of the Barbarians who were armed with bows that he had conquered and crushed them, and that his souls were watching their actions, and for thirty-two centuries they have formed a striking monument of his farreaching power and greatness. On the walls inside the temple this king caused the history of his defeat of the confederation of the kings of North Syria to be inscribed, and reliefs illustrating his prowess to be sculptured ; but, seeing that very few of the Nubians could read his bombastic language, these have served chiefly to commemorate his inordinate vanity. In the train of the conquests of Rameses II. in the Sudan there only followed desolation and misery, but the victories of the British were succeeded by true liberty for the native and material prosperity for his country; the ruin wrought by the former is, nevertheless, commemorated by a unique temple of a stupendous character, which stands in a prominent spot on the great highway of the country, the river, plain for all men to see ; but no public monument of any kind has been set up to record the great benefits which the latter have conferred on the country, and the great loss of life and expenditure of money which they have borne in carrying out the work of civilization.

Between Korosko and Abu Simbel there are on both banks of the river the ruins of many ancient buildings, Egyptian temples and forts, Roman forts, Coptic churches, &c., and it is interesting to note that often the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and even the British have, sometimes unwittingly, chosen for their forts sites which had been employed for the same purpose by the ancient Egyptians. There is a large field here for exploration, but the cost of systematic exploration will be considerable, and not very remunerative in respect of material results. To the natives on the steamer, however, no ancient building evoked the same interest as the modern village of Argin (which we reached early in the morning of the fourth day after leaving Shelhil), where, as said above. Colonel Wodehouse defeated Wad an-Nagumi. Argin stands on or near the site of a flourishing little VOL. 1. 8j G