222 Sir J, Gardnei' Wilkinson on the Nile, and 



the secondary hills, in Lat. 28° 26', the section E and W pre- 

 sents the appearance of No. 8. of Plate. 



In Lat. 28° 10', passing hy the lofty Gharib, which is the 

 highest peak in this desert, having an elevation of about 6000 

 feet, the section is of the nature as delineated in the plate, 

 No. 9. of Plate. 



In Lat 28" from Jebel Ez-Zeit, in the Red Sea, to Jebel Abu 

 Fdyidah, the section has the character of No. 10. of Plate. 



In Lat. 27°, crossing the great range of the Ummumfiyah, 

 which is about 5000 feet high, the section has the appearance 

 of No. 11. of Plate. 



From a comparison of which it appears, that this desert has 

 one general character in its levels from the river to the Red Sea. 



A little above Esnch, about Lat. 25° 10', the sandstones ap- 

 proach the Nile on the east bank, and, a httle farther up, they 

 cross the river near Edfu, whence they continue on either side of 

 the Nile ; and at Silsilis are the quarries from which the sand- 

 stone used in the temples of Egypt was taken : 14 miles above 

 Ombos, on the eastern bank, the granites appear, and at Es- 

 wan, 14 miles farther, they cross the river. Amidst these are 

 the cataracts, a succession of rapids, of which no single fall is 

 more than about 4 or 5 feet. 



In Nubia, the valley is very narrow, the rocks of the eastern 

 and western mountains often coming close to the river, and 

 leaving little or no space for the deposit of alluvium ; in other 

 places on the Libyan side, the sand covers the whole level space 

 between the hills and the bank, and the character of the coun- 

 try between the first and second cataract is totally different 

 fr-om Egypt. The river, about Kalabsheh, rises between 30 

 and 40 feet perpendicularly during the inundation, and, after 

 it has subsided in February, the stream runs at the rate of 2 to 

 3 nautical miles an hour. But I return to the deserts of Egypt. 



In going to the westera or Libyan desert in the direction 

 of the Oasis Parva, one road passes by the Fayyiim. That 

 province is considerably lower than the valley of the Nile, and 

 the lake Moeris is about 100 or 120 feet below the level of the 

 bank at Benisuef. A section across that part of the country, 

 from the Nile to the mountain-range, lying behind the lake 

 Moeris, has the form represented in No. 12 of Plate. 



