THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN precincts. Its inhabitants are not numerous, and they appear tolead miserable lives ; on the patches of mud near the river they grow small crops of dhurra, but how they manage to find money to buy clothes and other necessaries is a mystery, unless it be that they obtain remittances from their relatives in Egypt. A native led us through a few huts and we found ourselves standing before a solidly built stone wall, on which appeared the cartouches of Thothmes II., Thothmes III., and Amen-hetep III. CrawHng through some low doors we entered chamber after chamber of an XVIIIth Dynasty temple of considerable size, but it was quite impossible to realize exactly what its plan was, because the'floor of every chamber was covered to the depth of several feet with sand and stones, and with the rubbish which several generations of modern natives have left behind them. All the plans hitherto published are incomplete, and nothing final can be arrived at until the Sudan Government has expropriated the natives and cleared out the whole site. It is to be hoped that Sir Reginald Wingate will cause this important work to be taken in hand at an early date, and have the best reliefs removed to Khartum, for if the walls be uncovered, and be exposed to the full force of the wind and the heat of the sun, both the colours and the reliefs themselves will soon disappear. The situation of the temple is a fine one and whether as a look-out station or a fort could not be improved upon ; it stands, like all the temples of its class, in one corner of an enclosure which is about two hundred feet square, and was well protected by very strong walls on all sides. The garrisons of Kumma and Semna, which are . exactly opposite each other, were intended to protect the Cataract, and to prevent the passage down the river of tribes from the south.

The view from Kumma is very fine, and the eye is able to wander over an enormous tract of country to the south, but the terrible deserts which seem to thrust themselves into the Nile itself must always strike awe into the hearts of the most casual spectator. The contrast between the bright green of the patches of cultivation and the few palms in the villages on the south, and the brilliant yellow of the sand, which stretches for miles in all directions, is very striking. The natives told us that in a hill about two miles distant there were quarries, probably those from 480 I