576 TEA VEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1869, 



at the first cataract of the Nile, at ancient Syene, 

 or between it and Philae. I think you may like to 

 send a part to Don Jose, for culture in Cuba, where 

 it will be a good thing to have. And the rest, let 

 Guerrineau try to raise some, that we may have one 

 in the conservatory. I shall send, along with heavy 

 things, some nuts of the Doum palm, Hyphaene 

 Thebaica, which branches and is picturesque. That 

 and the date palm are the principal trees here. Be- 

 sides, there is Acacia Nilotica (the sont) and one 

 or two other acacias, and an occasional sycamore. 

 Below, a jujube tree was not uncommon, and plenty 

 of the fine Acacia (or Albizzia) Lebbek, with its 

 great flat pods and large leaflets. But none in Nu- 

 bia. Up here the cultivable valley of the Nile is just 

 the slope of the banks bared as the river subsides 

 after the inundation, making a strip of green crops 

 from five feet to five rods wide, all else desert, 

 either rock or sand as the case may be. We came 

 twenty-four hours ago within the tropics, a new 

 thing for me, and I thought of Cuba and you. But 

 it is just comfortably warm, 70 in the shade as I 

 write, has been 76, the nights down to 60 or 

 so ; just nice and comfortable if you keep out of the 

 sun, which, though seemingly not hot, has an over- 

 powering effect I never knew at home. Our winds 

 are steady from north and northwest, pushing us up 

 the river steadily. About sixty miles more, or may be 

 seventy, is the second cataract, and our limit. Then 

 we turn our faces north again, and descend, making 

 our principal stops by the way. For thus far, we have 

 stopped only little or briefly, taking only such sight- 

 seeing as came in our way or took us little out of it. 

 Yet we have had a glance at several of the greatest 



