2l6 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

journey on the Red Sea side from Suakim to Berber is 250 miles, 100 miles of which is without water.

By the Nile from Wady Haifa to Barkal the distance is about 465 miles, and above Wady Haifa the character of the Nile valley changes completely, and the desert, instead of approaching the banks only at intervals, now makes a close boundary, and at distances of ten or twenty miles the verdant spots are formed by a series of patches of the black mud deposited by the river, and carefully cultivated with beans, lentils, or dhurra, according to their extent. At Okma the mountains of the eastern chain approach to the bank and form a series of rocky islands and rapids; while near the island of Kulb the Lybian chain closes in and the banks are rocky and steep, rising to a height of about 80 feet. Towards Sukkut, however, about 100 miles above the second cataract, the valley widens, and instead of dreary sterility there are fertile plains on both sides, and there are also well-cultivated islands, for in its course from Assouan to Barkal the Nile forms a number of islands, some of them of considerable size, notably Argo, between Hannek and New Dongola, about thirty miles in length. Between the second and third cataracts are the basaltic rock of Sarras, 150 feet high, and with an old castle on its summit; Murki, an eminence ■of somewhat similar appearance; and some two miles above, Mongolfi, and then successively Tommuka, Naoni, Sanniet, and Mushab. The cultivated plains are not dependent on the overflows of the Nile, — which are not frequent in that part, — but are irrigated in the usual Egyptian manner. At the third cataract the cultivated areas are contracted, but at the island of Argo open out on the left bank to a fertile plain extending two or three miles from the river to a low ridge of sandstone hills. The alluvial plain then gradually narrows again, and at Hannek the sandstone hills on the west come down to the river bank, and this continues to Shaba, above which only a fringe of cultivation extends as far as Old Dongola, when fertility broadens out again. Both above and below Debbeh the land on the left bank is rich with luxuriant crops, while on the right are only shifting sand dunes with an occasional narrow strip of green. The Nubian sandstone, which