A boulder hill on Umm Shilman plain 



(continued from page 6) 



With the feelings of men who have 

 looked upon isolated oases in the Sa- 

 hara, we gazed at the grandeur of Wadi 

 Nagib. Scattered along the few miles of 

 this winding, clifT-bordered valley were 

 luxuriant shrub acacias, salam {Acacia 

 ehrenbergiana) and huge spreading trees, 

 sayaal {A. raddiana). The fresh foliage and 

 yellow blossoms of the salam were bril- 

 liant in the morning sun. Scattered 

 clumps of araa (Aerva persica) stood out 

 snow white against the sand and the 

 glandular leaves of the cushiony mashta 

 (Cleome droserifolia) glistened as though 

 covered with dew. Sinuous drifts of 

 golden sand swept down from the lees 

 of the eastern promontories. 



White streaks from hyrax urine on the 

 broken western cliffs indicated several 

 active colonies. Fresh tracks followed the 

 cliff bases and trails out to the trees. We 

 shot a young hyrax that was watching 

 us from a crevice, then waited, as usual 

 but no more appeared. 



We went to the base camp for sup- 

 plies and returned the following morn- 

 ing to Wadi Nagib. There were no 

 signs of hyrax activity from the night be- 

 fore. For two days we waited patiently 

 for them to appear. Late the second 

 evening, nine were seen bounding over 

 the rocks far out of range of our guns. 

 Though we had placed traps in every 

 trail, we caught only one other young 

 one. We had been outwitted and out- 

 waited and had not the time to remain 

 longer. However, the specimens we had 

 were valuable since the nearest localities 

 of previous collections were Gebel Elba 

 in southeastern Egypt and in Sudan. 



Next morning farewells were expressed 

 over many glasses of tea at Gar el Nabi's 

 camp. We made him a casual gift of 



Page 14 MARCH 



several kilos of sugar, a tin of tea, and 

 a bag of rice; knowing he would refuse 

 and quite possibly be insulted if we of- 

 fered him money for his help. 



Two days later we had established a 

 new base camp on the shore of the grad- 

 ually rising water of the Nile, now known 

 as Lsike Nasser. There we enjoyed a 

 cooler campsite and a bathing beach on 

 a bay that extended into what was for- 

 merly the mouth of Wadi AUaqi. We 

 were in the land called Nubia, a name 

 that usually brings to mind narrow strips 

 of green along the Nile, waving palms, 

 and gaily-decorated mud houses. All 

 these were gone; inundated. Of Allaqi 

 village, all that remained above water 

 was the minaret of the town mosque. 

 The palm logs that once supported 

 thatch roofs were scattered along the 

 shore. The gay and colorful Nubians 

 had been relocated to Egyptian designed 

 compounds near Kom Ombo. Between 

 the water and the desert there was noth- 

 ing now except a thin contour of pioneer 

 vegetation (mostly Hyoscyamus muticus and 

 Pulicaria crispa) that marked the high 

 water level, about five feet above the 



present. In the future, Lake Nasser will 

 creep gradually eastward nearly 50 miles 

 into Wadi .Mlaqi and up to our old 

 campsite at Umm Qareiyat. 



The first night on the Nile a hyena 

 passed within 25 yards of camp while 

 we slept. Next day we found the tracks 

 of hyenas and jackals {Canis aureus) which 

 crossed the plains at night to drink from 

 the Nile and to eat dead fish thrown out 

 by fishermen. We spent several days 

 following hyena trails into the sandstone 

 mountains but never found an occupied 

 den. At night we hunted back and forth 

 over the plains, eventually shooting two 

 jackals and four more hyenas. One hy- 

 ena was killed as it carried the body of 

 another which we had left on the plain. 

 I regret to say that in spite of our close 

 contact with hyenas, we never heard 

 them. Our traps on the barren sands 

 and sterile rocks took a small catch of 

 gerbils and spiny mice. 



The last day in Wadi Allaqi, under 

 a scorching afternoon sun, we followed 

 the tracks of two gazelles until we cor- 

 nered the beautiful creatures in a canyon. 

 Thus, two more valuable specimens were 

 added to the collection. That night the 

 carcasses were turned slowly over a deep 

 bed of coals and as the meat sputtered 

 and roasted we feasted. 



Having eaten and stirred up the fire, 

 the sounds of our own tea drinking and 

 the bubbling of a water-pipe lulled ev- 

 eryone into meditation. I guessed the 

 thoughts of all were the same — we were 

 reliving those exciting nights of the chase, 

 and we were all wondering if we should 

 believe our own observations of the shy 

 and retiring hyenas or the intriguing 

 tales of the Bisharin. 



From Research Project NR005.09-0013, Bureau oj Medicme and Surgery, Navy Department, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. The work was supported in part by Office of Naval Research Contract Nam 4414 (00) 

 NR 107-806 with Field Museum oJ Natural History, Chicago, Illinois. The opinions and assertions 

 contained herein are the private ones oj the author and are not to be construed as official or rejecting the 

 views oj the Navy Department or the naval service at large. 



The camp at Lake Nasser 



