. 58.] TO JOHN TORREY. 579 



Nubia is very different from Egypt, picturesque 

 rocky ranges always near the river and broken into 

 peaks and pyramids, and all desert except the narrow 

 selvage reclaimed by irrigation with sakias ; here the 

 vegetation (barley, peas, beans, and lupines) intensely 

 green by the contrast with yellow sand or light brown 

 sandstone. 



January 23, before reaching Korosko (whence cara- 

 vans to Dongola ; visited their camps, very wild Arabs 

 and blacks, and very disagreeable white traders, 

 Greeks, probably, with villainous faces) saw our first 

 crocodile, and sent two shots at once at him, but the 

 huge fellow flounced off the sand bank into the river, 

 probably not much hurt. 



January 24, first met with chameleons; got three 

 or four from the boys, but finally kept only one, which 

 we still have here at Cairo - - a lovely little brute whose 

 name is Billy, and a great pet ; a great diversion to 

 watch his change of hues, and especially to see him 

 catch flies by darting out his slender, india-rubber-like 

 tongue to the length of several inches (nearly that of 

 his whole body when the fly was far enough off), and 

 with wonderful quickness and certainty. Service in 

 the afternoon, with Church's last sermon, and sorry 

 we were to have reached the end of them. 



But I shall never have done with our journey at 

 this rate, and shall give you not the least idea of it 

 after this fashion ; how some days we sailed on with 

 fair winds, which is very cheerful ; some we tracked, 

 and then we were much on shore and mingled with 

 the people ; and often strong head winds kept us fast 

 at the bank, sometimes for two or three days, which 

 grew tedious. Well, on the 27th we came to the 

 great attraction of the upper Nile, Abou-Simbel ; but 



