THE CAMP. 51 



baggage in a van, under the escort of Luici and Dango. The 

 train, which should have started at 9 o'clock, gets off about 

 10, and, after going very slowly for two hoiu-s, stops at El 

 Wasteh (Zowyeli), the junction for the Payoom. Hei'e we 

 have to wait for the up-train from Minieh, which may arrive 

 at any moment, but is, of course, late ; so that we do not start 

 again until 4.30 p.m., thus reaching Medineh el Fayoom, the 

 capital of the district, at 6 p.m., when we pitch our camp at 

 once close to the station. 



The camp consists of a large tent for myself, and a smaller 

 one to cook in. The baggage is certainly bulky and heavy, 

 the canteen and stores taking up much room, while the 

 ammimition adds considerably to the weight ; but I expect 

 to fire the latter away pretty freely during the month I 

 purpose spending in the Fayoom. This is a strange part of 

 Egypt, being detached from the cultivated valley of the Nile 

 by the desert, which surrounds it on all sides. Railway 

 communication is at times stopped by the drifting of the 

 sand ; and thus we are, as it were, on an island of fertility, 

 of very considerable extent, surrounded by a sea of sand. 

 In the north-west portion of this fertile tract lies the brackish 

 lake of Birket el Korn, about five miles wide by thirty long. 

 It has been encroaching of late years upon the fertile land to 

 the south and upon the desert to the north ; but in former 

 times it evidently spread much further into the desert than 

 it now does, as testified by the natron and freshwater shells 

 which are spread over the latter close up to some ruins, 

 which now stand about two miles from the lake. The 

 Fayoom is supplied with water from the Bahr Yoosef, a small 

 offshoot of the Nile, to which tliis large fertile tract owes its 

 existence. 



