25O EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

obstacle as compared with some of those on the Red River. The men discovered afterward, however, that the Nile rapids have peculiar dangers and difficulties of their own which require great skill and promptitude, and it cannot be denied that these qualities were characteristics of the steersmen.

To the voyageurs the aspect of the country and of its inhabitants was of course strange, but they entered on their duties with a cheerful determination to make the best of circumstances, and Colonel Denison had made judicious arrangements for their general comfort. They went the voyage to Assiout in two large barges covered with temporary roofs and fitted up with old-fashioned camp-fires of clay and brick, so that a dozen cooking pans could be set upon them at once. A man out of each gang was selected as cook, to convert the rations of bread and canned beef into savoury messes by the addition of preserved vegetables and seasoning. The men were all in the best spirits, some playing cards to amuse themselves, and others pelting the natives along the shore with bits of biscuit. On arriving at Assouan they were transferred to the cars, which took them to Shellal, and there embarked in the expedition boats, which were tied together with ropes four abreast. One of the men suffered from ophthalmia and was left at the hospital at Assouan. On the 3d of November they were encamped three miles above Wady Haifa, and the next day began the work of taking the boats up the rapids. The correspondent of the Toi'onto Globe who accompanied them wrote: "The men were eager to see who would be the first to get into quiet water above. One of the officers in charge of the boats told me it took from fifteen to twenty natives to take a' boat up in a day; we accomplished the same work in two hours with seven men, and not only did we ' astonish the natives,' but the officers of the sailors' camp as well. This was our first stage up the rapids. After waiting two days at the first portage we were divided into four squads. One was left at the first camp, one moved to the head of the first stage, four miles up, and the third squad four miles further on. One of the gangs was sent to the head of the rapids to ascertain what the boats would carry at the pitch which the water had