672 THE UNIVERSE. 



After the frugal repast of dates and milk which was 

 offered me, I plunged into the desert, and I was already at 

 a distance, when the idea came into my head to salute this 

 hospitable abode for the last time. But everything was 

 transformed. The picturesque village seemed enveloped in 

 a magnificent sheet of the most transparent waters, in which 

 the -dwellings, palm-trees, and tombs were reflected in a 

 marvellous manner. The phenomenon was produced with 

 such exactness, and the sheet of water was so beautiful and 

 limpid, that if I had not a few minutes previously trav- 

 ersed the spot which it occupied on the burning sand I 

 should have thought it real. Such is the mirage, which so 

 often and so painfully deceived our worn-out soldiers when 

 they traversed these very regions. Exhausted with fatigue 

 and dying of thirst, they thought they saw in the distance 

 the water they longed for so much, while it was only a bit- 

 ter delusion ! 



Yet other phenomena engage the view of those who trav- 

 erse the deserts of Africa. Among these is the rising of 

 the sun, the splendor of which, as Byron says, is without 

 equal ! 



After traversing the great cataract of the Nile, we re- 

 solved to rest for a few days in the island of Philae, situated 

 at the entrance into Nubia. So soon as we had anchored 

 our boats on the east shore of the sacred island, crowded as 

 it is with religious monuments, we set to work to erect our 

 tent on the platform of one of the great gate-towers or py- 

 lones of the temple of Isis. It so happened that there was 

 at this place a complete gathering of scientific men : M. 

 Grhnaux, my friend and travelling companion, whom Rouen 



