DULGO is flat, and forms a convenient place to sleep on in hot weather ; the verandah is tiled and is spacious, and the walls are whitewashed within and without. This rest-house is one of several which Sir Reginald Wingate has had built in the Sudan, and every one must appreciate the soundness of the Government policy which provides for the housing of its Inspectors. In former days when an official arrived at a village in the evening after a long, hot day's ride, he had either to pitch his tent somewhere or pass the night in a native house, which is never a very clean place. If he decided to sleep in the native house, it was generally necessary to dispossess the master and mistress, with the family goats and chickens, who had to go and sleep elsewhere, and few Englishmen care to put the natives to such inconvenience. The rest-house is undoubtedly a useful institution, but it can only be properly appreciated and enjoyed by those who have travelled for weeks and months in countries wherein it does not exist.

Meanwhile the boat had been made ready, and a crew found, and ten minutes' walk through luxuriant crops of dhurra brought us to the river. The boat was large, and round-bottomed, like most of the craft that have to sail among the rocks in the cataracts, for experience has shown the native that boats built in this shape do not suffer so much when they strike on rocks hidden under water, and that the current carries them better through rocky shoals than those of deep draught. There are very few boats on that portion of the Nile, and the natives for generations appear to have neglected boat-building, for several travellers have recorded in their narratives that they were unable to visit such and such a site across the river, because no boat was available. A classical instance is the case of Burckhardt, who wished to cross over to the Island of Sai, but there was no ferry of any kind, and none seemed to be required by the natives, for when they had business on the oppposite shore they used to swim over, with their spear, or lance, fastened on top of the head. And again, on his return from Tinara along the east bank of the Nile, he wished to cross over and examine the ruins of the famous temple of Sulb, ' Travels, p. 56. Ibid., p 74.

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